Altered States

At first blush, she's like any other adolescent girl- hates schoolwork, is gaga over guys. As fans of Nickelodeon's The Secret World Of Alex Mack know, there's more to the title character than social studies and socializing. " I was just an average kid until an accident changed my life," Alex relates at the start of each episode. After getting splattered with a mystery chemical, she found herself imbued with secret powers, like the ability to morph into a puddle, make objects levitate or spew electricity from her fingertips. Understates Alex: " Guess I'm not so average anymore."

Pals like Lauren Smith-Hams (center) and Erin Mallin are "just like family," says Oleynik.

For her part, Larisa Oleynik, the ingenouse, fresh-faced 16-year-old who plays Alex, knows a thing or two about leading a double life. A megastar at Nickelodeon (Alex Mack is one of the kid-conscious network's highest-rated shows, and Oleynik gets the most fan mail, the green-eyed actress is a typical teen offscreen, one with her own sense of style(" One day I'll be totally preppy-J.Crew- and then the next I'll be Miss Thrift Store") and plenty of common sense( "I eat whatever," she says, thumbing through a fashion magazine and fixing on an emaciated model. " To be that thin, that's not worth it."
"The No.1 reason that Larisa is appealing to kids is because she's someone they could know," says Nickelodeon president Herb Scannell. "She's very real." On homework: " I hate chemistry," she says. " I totally don't get it." On boys: " I'm not dating anyone. I have crushes on,like,10 guys right now. It's so much more fun. I want the freedom to do whatever I want whenever I want."

Oleynik (with costars Darris Love, left, and Benjamin Smith) earns school credit for studying Alex Mack's special effects.

For Oleynik that's a tall order. Last January, before she cut her one-length hair into bangs (a tribute to one of her idols, No Doubt lead singer Gwen Stefani) she sought approval from her show's producers. As for downtime, it's a rarity. While the show's in production, Oleynik and her mother, Lorraine, a former nurse ( dad Roman is an anesthesiologist), commute regularly from the family's stately Tudor-style home (Larisa's bedroom there, she says features " a shrine" to actor Leonardo DiCaprio) in suburban San Francisco to Los Angeles and a two-bedroom rental apartment. "I miss my dad" Oleynik, an only child, says of her long-distance workweek. She begins filming Monday mornings at 7, studying with a tutor during breaks in her 9 1/2- hour days. " Larisa is stuck with me 24/7," says Lorainne, employing teenspeak for her full-time chaperoning duties, " but we get along amazingly well."

Still, it's a ardouse routine. So when the show's producers found a way to shoot around Oleynik's schedule at her San Francisco school, she was thrilled. After taping wrapped on the third season's episodes in Febuary, the rising star returned home to finish 10th grade with her pals and best of all- go to the prom. "We went together in a 14-person limo," says Oleynik of the outing in April. "My curfew was at 3. It felt so normal."

Normalcy is Oleynik's forte. " To boys, she's cute and funny," says Alex Mack producer and co-creator Ken Lipman. " Girls seem to connect with her." So much so that in 1995, Oleynik was asked to pen an advice column in the teen magazine Tiger Beat. She rolls her eyes over one recent request from her parents asking her to tell this daughter to study more. " Like I would want some 16-year-old telling me what to do. No way!" she says.

"I've always loved exactly the age I was," says Oleynik (in her backyard).

Oleynik knew what she wanted when, at age 8, she insised on auditioning for the part of Young Cosette in the San Francisco production of Les Miserables. Till then, she had only been in school plays. " Everyone was standing in line with portfolios and resumes," recalls Lorainne. " We had one little piece of paper with her name and age." But after Oleynik sang " Castle on a Cloud" from the show, the producers asked if she lived nearby. It wasn't until mom and daughter were driving home, says Lorainne, that " it hit me that she might actually get it" Oleynik played the part for almost a year. She appeared in one episode of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman before landing Alex Mack in 1994.

Since then, Oleynik has found the time to guest on Boy Meets World as well as play Dawn, an earthly environmentalist, in the 1995 movie The Baby-sitters Club. And though she has just begun shooting Alex Mack's fourth season, the veteran perfomer says she won't decide about acting as a carrer until after college. " I'm serious looking at Georgetown [University]," she says. " The brochure said the students are bright but not intellectuals. That's perfect for me."