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"When I was a child, I would draw these little stick-figures, and my mom would put them up all over the loft and tell me how wonderful they were. Then you get out there into the harsh reality of the world, and you realize not everybody loves every little thing you do the way your mom did." It's sad but true that not everyone will love everything you do -- especially not the way your mom did. But for Julia Stiles, who started acting when she was just 11 years old, learning this lesson early was very valuable to her in her career and as a catalyst for growth and development in her personal life, as well.

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Her screen debut was in Ghostwriter (1993-1994), where she played Erica Dansby in six episodes of the series. In 1996, she appeared in the film I Love You, I Love You Not, with her first leading role coming in 1998's Wicked. She gained fame for 10 Things I Hate About You in 1999, and was nominated for Teen Choice awards for that movie and others. After her role in Save the Last Dance (2001), Stiles started to shift her focus on roles that were less teen-centered and more mature. She took on serious and comedic characters, as she worked her way through it all. But how did she get there? Read on to find out more about her life.

Stiles' Early Life and Career in New York

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Born in New York City to a mother who worked as a potter and a father who was a businessman, Stiles was the oldest of three children, and has a brother named Johnny and sister named Jane. She began acting when she was only 11, with the La MaMa Theatre Company in New York. Her career in movies started in 1996, and then she was in The Devil's Own (1997) and Wide Awake (1998). She was highly popular at the Sundance Film Festival, and acting in Wicked (1998) made her a star in her own right. She started winning awards for her work, and moved into doing more movies in the 2000s.

One of the areas where she made her mark was in adaptations of Shakespearean plays, such as O (2001) and Hamlet (2000). In Save the Last Dance (2001) she does all her own dancing scenes, and she also won awards for her acting in that film. Throughout the early part of the 2000s, she worked on a number of other quality films and made her mark in Hollywood. But it was her work in the Bourne movies that really put her on the map and gave her the opportunity to land additional roles that were important to her or that she saw good value in.

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"I feel like I'm constantly trying to avoid awkwardness. I always try to pretend that the awkwardness doesn't exist, and then it just becomes more awkward," she has said. With that in mind, it doesn't look like Stiles is awkward at all. She may have struggles with that issue, but she hides it very well and easily makes it look as though she's completely comfortable in everything she does in her acting. Stiles wants to be sure that people believe the characters she portrays, and that she offers the best version of herself to all her fans and critics every time she gets involved with a role.

Her Stage Career and Other Work

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"I like analyzing human behavior. It's complex. That's what keeps me going," Stiles has said in the past. While she works on roles and characters, she's able to analyze why the character might do something a particular way. Because of that, she's much more easily able to address issues that might otherwise be a problem for an actress unsure of how to approach or handle a role. One of the areas where she has excelled is on the stage, where she started performing in the middle of the 1990s and was still acting as of 2009. A 2011 show in which she was supposed to appear was indefinitely postponed.

Stiles has also been in a number of other works including a music video for Cyndi Lauper, and she has hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live. She has also been a presenter at the Academy Awards and has made a directorial and writing debut. No matter what comes her way, Stiles has been able to handle it with grace. It's clear that her career is far from done, and that she's likely going to be entertaining fans in a number of different genres and mediums for years to come. It's just a matter of time to see what exciting project she gets involved with next.