Dakota Fanning says just because she grew up in front of the camera doesn't mean the public owns her. 

Dakota Fanning is growing up and into new roles. Dakota Fanning was a child star who grew up on film before our eyes.  Dakota Fanning was seven when she made "I Am Sam" in 2001. Dakota Fanning began acting at an age when most kids are entering kindergarten.

In an interview with Town and Country magazine, Fanning said "I'm just never going to parade my personal life. If you choose to not do it, it's not hard to not do it..."

"Because people saw me grow up, there's this weird sort of ownership that they feel for me and that is... difficult. Because it's not real; it's in their minds. People don't know me as much as they think they do. I'll be walking down the street and someone will say hello, and I'll go, 'Oh, hi!' I'll think I must know this person if they said hello, but then you realize, you don't know them."

Dakota Fanning is 20 years old now. Her 16-year-old sister Elle, 16, is following her big sister into the business of show. Both sisters stay out of the gossip loop. Headlines about the Fanning sisters are about their work, not their boyfriends.

Dakota was the youngest actor to be nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award when she was at eight.Fanning recently opened up about what it was like to grow up in front of millions of people. Fanning but she's doesn't embrace everything that goes along with being a former child star. Dakota likes mystery and keeps her personal life to herself.

Fanning told Town & Country magazine "Any part of an artistic business is made better by there being a little mystery. That's what movies are about."
According to The Inquisitr, Dakota Fanning has a boyfriend, Jamie Strachan, a 32-year-old model.

"I don't really date. I have a weird vision of relationships because my parents have known each other since second grade, and they got married right out of college. I've always thought that's what it's supposed to be like, and if it's not, then I don't want to waste my time on it."

Fanning told Town & Country because she has been famous all her life, random strangers think they know her well enough to just come over and talk to her. Sometimes they might even want to pick at her plate. Fanning remembered a time when a stranger set next to her at a booth while she was having breakfast at a restaurant. Fanning says the woman sat down uninvited and asked, "Are you her? Or do you just look like her?" Fanning said she is a "very personal-space person."
"I'm eating my pancakes, and I say something like, 'Uh, I am her?' I'm thinking, 'Will you just get up? I will say whatever you want!'"