Gossip Teen

Lucy Hale is Teen Vogue’s cover girl for the Febraury 2011 issue.

The 21 year-old actress and the rest of Pretty Little Liars cast returned to ABC Family last night (after months of waiting!) with the new episode “Moments Later.” Hale is getting noticed as Aria on PLL and the star says she wasn’t even all that interested in acting at first. Hale says “I wanted to be a singer.”

She tells TVogue about how she got started in Hollywood, maybe music is in her future and the politics of show business:

On how she started out: “I’ve only been living here for a few years. I never thought about acting when I lived in Memphis—actually, pretty much the opposite. I wanted to be a singer. Someone randomly suggested I audition for a few things. I thought, Why not? And I got a role on [Nickelodeon's] Drake & Josh. It was literally just a sentence, but I was so excited to be an actress.”

Is she going to move into a music career? “All I can say is that if I ventured out into that world, it’d be a dream come true. I took guitar a while back, and my heart wasn’t in it at the time, but I’m ready to try it again. I sing in the car, at home—it’s a huge part of my life, especially since I’m from Tennessee. When I’m ready for it, I’m going to dive into it 100 percent.”

On how to handle the back-stabbing world, Hollywood or high school: “There’s jealousy everywhere and tons of politics. The problem is that people in L.A. never really have to grow up,” she says. “Everyone needs to chill out. There’s room for us all.” The solution she found (which, she adds, is “pretty much the same way you should deal with high school”) is simple. She says with a shrug, “Surround yourself with the right people, and realize your own worth. Honestly, there are enough bad people out there in the world—you don’t need to be your own worst enemy.”

Check out Lucy’s behind-the-scenes video of her cover and photo shoot under: