When pictures of 13-year-old Saoirse Ronan wrapped around Hollywood darling Catherine Zeta- Jones became front-page news last week, they were greeted by a certain amount of admiration back home.

Admiration that a pretty little Carlow schoolgirl can hob-nob with the best of them and still maintain that look of girly innocence.

One week, rubbing shoulders at the Oscars, the next hanging out with Guy Pearce in Sydney. That's our girl.

Saoirse is the epitome of noughties Ireland – a complete antithesis to the Celtic Tiger vulgarity of the Irish ‘celebs' of the 90s who wore their newfound wealth like a two-fingered salute to the rest of the world, as if to say “Ha, ha, I made it!”

Saoirse is unfazed by money or status, or even her own celebrity. And now that she has ‘arrived', her attitude is more like one of, ‘I made it, and gosh, isn't this a crazy little world all the same?'

But while we admired her sassiness, we couldn't help but feel a little bit of fear, too.

The timing of Saoirse's success hasn't gone unnoticed by those of us equally mesmerised by the car crash disaster that is Britney Spears in the past six months.

The former Disney Club star seems to have experienced a breakdown right before our eyes, in the same way as actress Lindsay Lohan did last year.

But maybe that’s just the way things crumble for movie stars, cookie-wise, that is. You rise before us, you fall even more spectacularly in our presence.

“Something pre-adolescent lingers in the acting of many exchild stars, which gets in the way of the characters even as it focuses our eyes on the stars,” said journalist Richard Collis writing in Time magazine recently.

“I think it's because kids who stepped before the camera at an early age learned that the most important weapon in their arsenal was their gamine appeal. From the start they were tutored in the art of beguilement, the seductive talent of getting looked at,” he mused.

But the shooting stars of youth don't always have to crash to Earth when they hit adulthood. Take a look at the likes of Christina Ricci (The Adams Family), Natalie Portman (Leon) and even every man's fantasy girl, Scarlett Johansson (The Horse Whisperer) – they all seem to have escaped their adolescence relatively unscathed by fame. But for every well-adjusted actress, there are three more celluloid casualties lining up to sell their ‘snort 'n' tell' stories of addiction or depression to Oprah or Vanity Fair.

Stacy Ferguson, AKA singer Fergie, has forged a very successful career with the Black Eyed Peas, but she has also revealed her earlier crystal meth addiction, which she blames on her time as a child actor.

Still, there is something about the girl from Ardattin, just outside Tullow, which reassures us that little Saoirse Ronan can cope with anything they throw at her.

She mixes her swan-like grace with a cheeky but very Irish sense of fun, and everywhere she pops up, she is not just standing alongside some legend like Vanessa Redgrave or Bill Murray, but grinning madly like a love-struck fan in their company.

“Hollywood is OK, but I wouldn't want to live there,” she told the Irish Voice recently. “I'd much prefer to live in Carlow rather than Los Angeles. I'm sure it's a very nice place, but my home's better!”

Of course, the media's portrayal of this cute blonde's almost overnight success on the big screen is a little misleading. Saoirse's Dad Paul is also an actor, and played alongside Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own a few years ago. So really she is no stranger to the trappings of fame.

But the support of a strong, close family is the key for someone like Saoirse, says Colin O'Driscoll, psychologist and manager of the private addiction clinic, Forest, in Co Wicklow.

“When a child gets that kind of attention so early in life, you need to make sure they have a strong support system around them,” he points out.

By all accounts, Saoirse does. Whenever she travels abroad, her parents Paul and Monica are inevitably by her side. They sat with her at the Oscars, at the premiere of Atonement and this week they are with her on a tour of Australia and New Zealand to promote her new film, Death Defying Acts.

“Generally, we don't want people of that age exposed to that kind of pressure, but when it happens, it's important to have people around while they are still growing up. And if they cannot be physically there for some reason, then it's important that they can at least make regular contact.”

Colin was particularly impressed with Saoirse's devotion to her dog, a collie called, appropriately, Sassie. Sassie is constantly in her thoughts, and her dad even brought him over to see her when she was filming in England last year.

“It's important to create as many links with home as possible, and her dog would be a great example of that,” says Colin. “Even a doll can be a help to a child when there is no person or pet around.”

Saoirse has often mentioned her desire to get back to school in Carlow, although she does have a tutor travelling with her.

This kind of social interaction with peers is crucial to a young child's development, says Colin.

“If she was away for long periods of time, it would be important that she would attend another school, to give her that same social interaction she would get back home.” If she is away for shorter periods, it would still be important that she meets children around her own age too, and not just interact with adults.

But what will probably prove to be most valuable to Saoirse in her undoubtedly successful future career, will be her strong personality and level-headed Irishness.

“I'm Irish and I like messing,” she told a Hollywood reporter, adding, for clarification purposes: “That means having a laugh!”

She says she gets her sense of humour from her prankster dad, and her sense of what we Irish like to call ‘cop-on' from her mum.

When she befriended Keira Knightley on the set of Atonement, the ‘sisters' formed a bond that translated to the big screen, no doubt adding to the success of the film.

“I take advice from Saoirse, I wouldn't dream of giving it to her,” Keira said later. Which kind of sums up our girl.

Child stars who fell to earth

DANNY BONADUCE: The redhead who played Danny Partridge in The Partridge Family let us watch his real-life breakdown on VH1’s Breaking Bonaduce two years ago, which was heart-stopping car-crash TV.

COREY HAIM: The Canadian child-star whose film Firstborn was a hit when he was just 13, later hit the drugs big time, prompting The Thrills to write Whatever Happened to Corey Haim?

RIVER PHOENIX: Shot to fame in Stand By Me in his early teens but, despite being a vegan from the age of seven, Phoenix fell victim to drug addiction in later life and died of a cocktail of coke and heroin at age 23.

BRITNEY SPEARS: A regular on The Mickey Mouse Club as a kid, where she appeared alongside Justin Timberlake, Britney seems to have lost the plot in the past year, having lost both her husband and the custody of her kids.

LINDSAY LOHAN: Though she swears she is back on the straight and narrow, Lindsay’s wild-child antics of late have seen her attract the attention of both the police and rehab counsellors. She was hugely lauded for her role as both twins in The Parent Trap remake, aged 12.

Child stars stil shooting

SCARLETT JOHANNSON: the daughter of a Danish-born architect father and Jewish mother, Johansson garnered praise and widespread attention for her performance in 1998’s The Horse Whisperer (aged 14) and 2001’s Ghost World. Since then she has become Woody Allen’s muse and is in the top 10 list of most wanted actresses in Tinseltown.

CHRISTINA RICCI: Starred in Mermaids when she was 10, but was best known back then for her portrayal of Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family. Since then she has starred in everything from Moby videos, to Grey’s Anatomy to Sleepy Hollow and The Ice Storm.

NATALIE PORTMAN: The thinking man’s fantasy girl, the Israeli- American attracted global fame for her portrayal of the orphan in Luc Besson’s Leon, aged just 13. Now a leading lady, she is about to hit our screens in The Other Boleyn Girl, and is regarded as one of Hollywood’s most stylish women.

MICKEY ROONEY: At 87, Rooney is still performing. But before he was 10 years old, he was calling the stage his home, and became a household name in the US after Boys Town hit the big screen when he was 18.

JODIE FOSTER: She had made nearly 50 appearances on TV and film before she got to college, but Jodie Foster actually began her career at the age of three, on a TV ad. Since then she has won two Oscars, two Golden Globes and three BAFTAs. She has five films currently in production and is one of the busiest actors/producers/directors in California.

DREW BARRYMORE: At age seven she stole our hearts as the cute sister in ET, and is still playing the role of the cute gal, more recently in Music and Lyrics, Fever Pitch and 50 First Dates. Drew has meticulously managed her career path to ensure she is now one of America’s bestknown comic actresses.