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" Amanda Bynes often feels like she doesn&amp;#039;t completely fit in. &amp;quot;Part of me relates to Perez Hilton because he&amp;#039;s an outcast,&amp;quot; she says of her celebrity blogger friend. (The two often grab frozen yogurt and talk movies.) &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t have a lot of friends who are actresses. They&amp;#039;re catty, and they&amp;#039;ll cut you down. I like that Perez is proud of who he is and doesn&amp;#039;t care what anybody thinks.&amp;quot; And it&amp;#039;s obvious that Amanda embraces that same attitude. Today, the independent 22-year-old has Google-mapped her way from her three-bedroom condo in an area of Los Angeles called The Valley to the ultrachic Peninsula hotel in Beverly Hills. Dressed in a Veronica M minidress that showcases her very long, very toned, and very tan legs, she bears little physical resemblance to the wholesome girl who has starred in such films as Hairspray and What a Girl Wants. But that warm, girl-next-door vibe is still apparent. As she sits down to talk to Cosmo, she tucks her beloved iPhone into a shopping bag\u2013size purse, flashes a wide smile, and says &amp;quot;Ask me anything!&amp;quot; GOING CAREER CRAZY It&amp;#039;s that game-for-whatever outlook that has guided Amanda&amp;#039;s career. The Southern California native performed stand-up comedy at age 7 and had starred in two Nickelodeon series and the WB sitcom What I Like About You before graduating high school (as a straight-A student, no less). She has dressed in drag (for She&amp;#039;s the Man), sung and danced (in Hairspray), and lent her sharp comedic timing to everything from the film Robots to the TV series Family Guy. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve never been that girl [who] was auditioning to be the hot cheerleader,&amp;quot; says Amanda. &amp;quot;I was always the quirky girl. I&amp;#039;m much more comfortable being goofy than being the sex kitten.&amp;quot; Along the way, she&amp;#039;s also found time for several side projects: becoming involved in charity work (she recently contributed her entire salary for the Lifetime movie Living Proof to cancer research and awareness) and launching her own clothing line, dear by Amanda Bynes, sold exclusively at Steve and Barry&amp;#039;s stores. While her early designs were sportier, Amanda describes the latest pieces as flirty, feminine, and bohemian. &amp;quot;I want to make cute, inexpensive versions of things you see on the runway,&amp;quot; she says. (Plans for a dear line of fragrance and makeup are also in the works.) Amanda credits her father, who &amp;quot;started off as a humble wood-shop teacher&amp;quot; before becoming a dentist, with keeping her centered and instilling a strong work ethic. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve worked really hard to get to where I am,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Slow and steady wins the race, and I believe in paying your dues.&amp;quot; THE LOVE LESSONS SHE&amp;#039;S LEARNED Amanda&amp;#039;s similarly grounded when it comes to relationships. &amp;quot;I love people who have goals,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Somebody who&amp;#039;s passionate about life and does their own thing.&amp;quot; Those are the qualities she says she tends to find in older guys: &amp;quot;A lot of them have dated enough to know what they want. Young guys want to sow their oats.&amp;quot; And while she&amp;#039;s dated actors in the past, Amanda, who&amp;#039;s currently single, has been steering clear of them lately. &amp;quot;Obviously, Chace Crawford is gorgeous, but I wouldn&amp;#039;t want to date him,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s too pretty. Maybe he&amp;#039;s a very smart guy and maybe he&amp;#039;s my soul mate [laughs], but that&amp;#039;s not the type I go for.&amp;quot; Such strong opinions about what she does and does not seek in a boyfriend come from learning the hard way. One cheating ex, an actor whom she declines to name, &amp;quot;ended up breaking my heart,&amp;quot; she says. So much so that after the split, she moved back in with her parents for two months. &amp;quot;I was so hurt,&amp;quot; she admits. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m a confident person, but it killed me.&amp;quot; Amanda has since bounced back and is in the midst of reevaluating how to spend her social time. &amp;quot;I used to be known as the girl who was anti the club scene,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;But I&amp;#039;m finding a balance. I can have a drink and dance if I want. You have to go out to meet people\u2026and guys. I&amp;#039;m in that phase where I just want to have fun!&amp;quot; And despite having happily hitched role models in her life (her parents recently celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary, and both her sister and brother married in their early 20s), Amanda isn&amp;#039;t itching to walk down the aisle. &amp;quot;I say I never wanna get married,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I feel trapped with the idea of marriage. How can you really be with somebody forever? I&amp;#039;d get bored!&amp;quot; she says with a laugh, then later adds, &amp;quot;As I get older, I don&amp;#039;t settle. I&amp;#039;d rather tell somebody &amp;#039;This is what I want\u2014take it or leave it.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; LOOKING AHEAD Amanda&amp;#039;s not being choosy just in her dating life\u2014she also is carefully weighing her next project. After the glowing reviews she got for Hairspray, she&amp;#039;d like to do another musical, perhaps the rumored Hairspray 2. Beyond that, the girl who&amp;#039;s always made audiences laugh is looking to get serious. &amp;quot;Something dramatic would be a good next step,&amp;quot; says Amanda, who admires Ren\u00E9e Zellweger&amp;#039;s varied career. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d love to do something that would shock people, something that&amp;#039;s against type. I feel like I&amp;#039;m starting fresh,&amp;quot; she says, a smile spreading across her lips. &amp;quot;I feel like people don&amp;#039;t know yet what I can really do.&amp;quot;         Star Style Evolution: Amanda&amp;#039;s Fashion Makeover  Despite a platoon of primpers, celebs take years to hone their paparazzi-worthy hair and makeup looks.  Check out how this former teen queen has evolved her look.           Celeb Hairstyles: Amanda Bynes  Check out her style transformation! These &amp;#039;dos are red-carpet worthy.   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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