Get used to it.

From the tips of her neat navy-lacquered toes to the top of her flowing, corn-silky hair, Hollywood's reigning child star is no longer a child.

She is 14 and a sophomore at a Los Angeles high school after being taught by her longtime tutor until the eighth grade.

She's a varsity cheerleader and attended cheer camp this past summer.

She's a lover of chic fashions, including the snazzy black Zac Posen frock worn at the world premiere of her latest movie, The Secret Life of Bees, at the Toronto Film Festival.

An imposing pair of patent pumps with chunky 5-inch heels suggest Fanning might be exploring her inner glamazon.

Not quite. For one, she's not that into makeup yet.

"There's always the experimenting with makeup and the fun part of it, but there's no need to grow up any faster than I will, you know?"

Uh-huh. What about dating?

"I think that happens all at the right time. And I look forward to that part of my life."

Such a wait-and-see attitude is a rarity in the tumble-out-of the-limo era of Lindsay and Britney. As her Bees castmate Queen Latifah notes: "Dakota is very grounded. She's nonplussed by Hollywood. And she has a very solid family."

Fanning's film projects also are beginning to reflect her maturing mind-set. As she says, "I won't be able to play the same roles as I did when I was 6 or 9. I'll be 15 in February, and as I get older, the roles will inevitably change. I look forward to that."

Will she be able to follow Jodie Foster's path into a career as an adult, or will she lose her audience as she ages?

The reception to The Secret Life of Bees, which remains in the top 10 and has made about $25 million in three weeks, suggests Fanning just might make the leap.

She has appeared in movies aimed at grown-ups since she broke through at age 6 opposite Sean Penn in 2001's I Am Sam, often paired with an established actor who could benefit from a dose of her worldly yet innocent cuteness. Those who have gained from the Fanning effect include Denzel Washington in Man on Fire, Robert De Niro in Hide and Seek and Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds.

She also has done films that have alarmed grown-ups, specifically the recently released Hounddog, in which her character is raped off-camera.

But in The Secret Life of Bees, she has her first bona fide grown-up part, with all the complex feelings that go along with it. As Lily, a motherless 14-year-old in 1964 who runs away from her abusive father and takes refuge with a trio of Southern black women, she declares herself "unlovable" and struggles to rise above the harsh realities of her past.

"It's definitely different from anything I've done before," says Fanning, a bookworm who has read Bees twice. "She goes through every possible emotion that you can have in a film. That was a dream come true for me as an actor, and definitely what drew me to the story."

Plus, she gets to kiss a boy, namely Tristan Wilds. Not that Fanning hasn't puckered up before in such films as Sweet HomeAlabama (she was the young Reese Witherspoon), Hounddog and the upcoming Winged Creatures.

Told that it seems as if she has been kissing up a storm for a while, Fanning laughs and then explains, "This one was more serious." Especially since it's the early '60s, a time of racial unrest, and the young man is black. "This one was more of a relationship. Also, it was kind of a forbidden love kind of thing."

Bees did provide Fanning with her first real chance to immerse herself in a female-driven universe on-screen. The trio of Latifah, Sophie Okonedo and Alicia Keys embody the honey-making sisters, while Jennifer Hudson is Rosaleen, Lily's caretaker and ally.

A woman director and writer, Gina Prince-Bythewood, called the shots behind the scenes as well. Fanning already was part of the deal when the filmmaker came aboard, and Prince-Bythewood was a bit nervous about how puberty was treating her star. "I wanted to see if she was going through an awkward stage," she says. "I invited her over to my house to talk, and from the moment she walked in, I thought, 'Oh, thank you, God. She is so beautiful.' "

Prince-Bythewood also says there is still a lot of kid left in Fanning, even if she grew 3 inches between the end of shooting early this year and post-production work later on.

"She can be a 14-year-old cheerleader, giggling and all that. For me, being an athlete (she ran track at UCLA), there's a thing against cheerleaders, and we playfully went back and forth. She has no inhibitions. She bounces around between scenes and does this hysterical imitation of a model's walk."

Prince-Bythewood also accompanied Fanning to her first live concert to watch Keys in action at the Staples Center, backstage visit and all.

Fanning stars in a sci-fi thriller next year, Push, in which she plays a psychic. "Yes, I can see the future. It's a cool effects movie."

As for her own future, she will predict only that she will continue acting for a long while. As Fanning says, "I know what I was meant to do and what I want to do and what I love to do. I feel at home."

A LESSON IN BEEKEEPING One of the side benefits of being a movie actress is getting paid to enjoy new adventures. During the making of The Secret Life of Bees, Fanning got a chance to learn the art of beekeeping. "I was fully protected," she assures. "I had gloves on and everything. But Tristan Wilds and Queen Latifah, they were gloveless because they were supposed to be more experienced. They had it tougher than I did. But we had an amazing beekeeper, Julian Wooten, and we went to his farm and worked with his bees." There was definitely buzzing in the air. "There are about 60,000 bees in each hive, and there were 12 hives on set," she says. "It was incredible. It was cold because we were filming in the dead of winter in the South, and the bees weren't at their ideal temperament or their ideal temperature. But we got through it, though." She also had a chance to sample their wares. "We ate so much honey on this movie. We ate it with the bees still on it. You take it right out of the hive. It's so pure. Take my word for it, it's good."