Dakota Fanning is insistent upon the fact that she won’t parade her personal life in front of anyone’s cameras. And at times the Very Good Girls star is a bit miffed at how people think they know her personally. It’s probably not unlike many former child stars who have grown up on the big screen or on TV. Fans feel like they’re part of their own lives. Dakota feels passionately that they’re not.

“Because people saw me grow up, there’s this weird sort of ownership that they feel for me and that is… difficult. Because it’s not real; it’s in their minds. People don’t know me as much as they think they do,” she said during a recent interview with Town and Country magazine. “I’ll be walking down the street and someone will say hello, and I’ll go, ‘Oh, hi!’ I’ll think I must know this person if they said hello, but then you realize, you don’t know them.”

She also dished on her decision to thrust herself into the limelight–one say says was no one’s but her own.

“I was an exceptionally mature child,” she said.

Actress > Dakota Fanning in Saint Laurent Fall14 Collection > TOWN&COUNTRY @TandCmag Aug2014 by Daniel Jackson.#Edit pic.twitter.com/9C0cVLbBEx

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That maturity is likely what makes her even more determined–at 20–to keep her private life to herself.

“I’m just never going to parade my personal life. If you choose to not do it, it’s not hard to not do it,” she said. “Any part of an artistic business is made better by there being a little mystery. That’s what movies are about.”

Fanning’s life in Very Good Girls is not so private. Her character and that of Elizabeth Olsen–best friends for years–make a pact to lose their virginity before heading off to college. The plot takes a twist when they both start seeing the same man. The film debuted at Sundance in January and is expected to be released in limited theaters across the U.S. later in July.

Dakota Fanning’s younger sister Elle Fanning has made quite a name for herself in the acting world, too–most recently starring with Angelina Jolie in Maleficent. It’s uncertain if she plans to keep her private life as private as big sister Dakota’s but so far not much about it has hit the media–so it’s a safe bet she’ll share little to nothing with her fans, too.

In the meantime Dakota Fanning is going full steam ahead with her film work. She is seeking roles depicting strong female characters and hopes to eventually try her hand at directing, too.

“It’s very hard to find a movie about a strong woman – one that doesn’t have anything to do with a guy or the love of a guy or the heartbreak of a guy,” she said. “Is that the only crisis that women deal with: love and loss of love and sadness? There’s more to life than that.”

Fanning played a role about love, lust, and female wiles in The Last of Robin Hood–an indie film that screened at the Toronto Film Festival.

There’s clearly way more to life than cunningness and heartbreak in Dakota Fanning’s world–however by her own choosing her fans won’t be privy to much of it at all. Good for her for respecting her privacy and insisting that it remain that way with her fans as well.

Image via YouTube