No, she's not. Spears may be the pop star choice of many little girls, but the singer, who turned 20 in December, hasn't really been one of them - and definitely hasn't looked like them - for a long time.

      Spears, perched like an expensive, hand-stitched pillow on the sofa in her spacious hotel suite here, is all dolled up. Impeccable make-up. Glistening blonde-colored hair. That famous bronzed tummy is enjoying the fresh air, exposed between a billowy peasant blouse and hip-high blue jeans.

      If Anna Kournikova could see Spears at this moment, the tennis beauty might break a racket.

      As Spears' teen years faded last year, she shelled out more than $3 million for a home in Los Angeles. She talked of potential marriage to `N Sync beau Justin Timberlake.

      She also made her first big movie, ``Crossroads,'' the PG-13 chicklet flick that opened at theaters nationwide on Friday. Before its 94 minutes are up, Britney Spears the actress has cried rivers, kissed a guy a lot more than once and had sex.

      There is more to that song, though. The title ends with four more little words - ``... Not Yet a Woman.''

      No, she's not. Just a dozen days ago, Spears signed an autograph on the cover of a ``Crossroads'' media kit for a pimply 13-year-old girl. Above her signature, Spears added a loopy heart. And a smiley face. And a flower.

      ``I probably shouldn't be saying this,'' Spears says with an uncomfortable-sounding laugh, ``but I was 10 years old, running around the house naked. Because my family, we're really open like that. And I don't see anything wrong with showing the body. That's a beautiful thing.''

      The whole girl/woman thing erupts in Spears' first scene in ``Crossroads.'' She plays Lucy, a studious and somewhat dorky high school senior. The scene is Lucy's frilly, girly bedroom. In between gulps of cereal, Spears is singing and dancing to a CD player booming Madonna's ``Open Your Heart To Me.'' The spoon is her microphone. She bounces around the room in a tiny top and itsy-bitsy underwear, wiggling her hips in a come-on of tanned skin and youthful allure.

      Feminist author Camille Paglia once branded Spears ``a glorified 1950s high school cheerleader with an undertone of perverse 1990s sexuality. She's Lolita on aerobics.''

      Spears thinks people like Paglia miss the point.

      ``It's all in how you do it,'' Spears says. ``It's not about saying, `Oh, I'm going to strut my stuff and be sexy.' It's about doing what feels right. In my opinion, and this is not everyone's opinion, I do feel sexy when I put on a dress and I go out at night. I don't go walkin' around in a freakin' high high mini-skirt with my belly showing to go out to eat. It's all in the way you carry yourself. Women should be proud of their sexuality. And proud to be sexy.''

      Her words do sound more like Erin Brockovich than Madonna.

      In many respects, ``Crossroads,'' budgeted at $10 million and filmed last year in California and Spears' native state of Louisiana, tones down her sometimes controversial, sex-sells stage image. That snake she wore over her shoulders at last year's MTV Video Music Awards is nowhere in sight. There's many more close-ups of doe eyes than bare skin when she finally croons the anthem ``I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman.''

      Early in the film, Lucy turns down sex with her high school lab partner (Justin Long). And Spears, who was involved in casting and had some control over the filming, toned down the sex scene she has later with 28-year-old co-star Anson Mount.

      ``I was open to a lot of things the writer did, but there was talk about the love scene and what we were going to do,'' Spears says. ``I just thought it was enough to have a tasteful kiss that would insinuate something. It wasn't necessary to go into all that.''

      Spears also axed the planned expletives in her character's lines.

      ``Yeah, there were a couple of curse words (that we took out),'' Spears says. ``It wasn't so much about the curse words but it was more like Lucy would never say anything like that. Her character is not like that.''

      What ``Crossroads'' does have is girl talk. Lots of it. Lucy and her pals Mimi (the troubled one, played by Taryn Manning) and Kit (the stuck-up one, played by Zoe Saldana of the recently filmed, made-in-Atlanta ``Drumline'') travel from Georgia to California in a convertible with a somewhat mysterious young man named Ben (Mount).

      While there is plenty of singing along to the radio and a karaoke-style performance of ``I Love Rock 'N' Roll'' at a stop along the way, the trio often delves into revealing conversations about pregnancy, child abuse, unwanted children, unfaithful boyfriends, date rape and sex.

      ``It deals with real teen issues that go on,'' Spears says. ``But it's not overly done. The movie's still lighthearted and fun. It makes you laugh.''

      Still, with a mildly restrictive PG-13 rating and Spears' popularity with little girls, it likely will mean many kids much younger than teenagers will have easy access to ``Crossroads.''

      ``My little sister went to go see it (at an early screening) and she's 10,'' Spears says. ``I think that's completely fine. I think it's up to the parents. They know their kids - whether they think their kids can go and see the movie or not.''

      And the sex?