Dear Jennifer Lawrence,

Okay, it’s official. You are exactly what everyone has been saying about you: The world’s most adored actress and desired best friend.

Sure, it took meeting you in person three times before I voluntarily signed up for the J-Law Fan Club. But, hey, as someone who can reminisce about the time when Mel Gibson was considered a sex symbol, I think you would agree that I’m really not your immediate target demographic.

I’ll be honest, Jen. I was a little underwhelmed when we met for the first time back in 2011 when you were promoting X-Men: First Class . I was initially so bowled over by your beautifully raw performance in 2010’s Winter’s Bone that, I profess, I came with certain high expectations when I interviewed you about your role as the young Mystique.

Don’t get me wrong, I thought you did a great job holding your own as the shape-shifting sex-pot that kicked major butt. But you seemed held back and almost lacklustre during our chat. I remember thinking to myself, is she just a nervous young actress or did she simply not care?

Things started feeling different last year when I interviewed you for the first instalment of The Hunger Games. It was before the world saw you transform into Katniss, Suzanne Collin’s beloved heroine in the best-selling dystopian young adult novel trilogy-turned-movie franchise The Hunger Games; before your Oscar winning performance in David O Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook; and before you became the critical and commercial megastar that you are now. You were friendly, funny and honest, telling me how you “hate going to those Hollywood parties” and how you were planning to deal with the mania of The Hunger Games phenomenon. “I just don’t really think about it, to be honest. I read these books and was obsessed with them too, so I am a fan too! I completely understand the mania around I, because I would be the same way,” you said. “You just have to let it go and do your best and make the movie. Focus on the film and the character and not everybody else’s opinion.”

I know you were trying hard to be as open as you could, but truth be told, I still didn’t think you were Everybody’s Best Friend, that moniker Hollywood was starting to label you with.

And then came the defining moment of your likeability: In February this year, when you tripped on your dress (Christian Dior, no less) on the way to collect your Best Actress Oscar — age 22 — on live TV. You picked yourself up with just enough humour and self-deprecating charm and instantly became that friend girls everywhere wanted to have. That best friend who’s not afraid to speak her mind, and just happens to be an award-winning actress. The buddy who might have been voted the world’s most desirable woman by several men’s magazines,but does not blink twice at flipping off the press at the Oscars or quip that she beat Meryl Streep during her Golden Globes acceptance speech. Truthfully, I baulked a little when you dared to poke fun at the world’s greatest living actress. Who gets away with that? Not even Sharon Stone. But when people didn’t get the pun and the fact that it was a line from the movie The First Wives Club (very clever classic ’90s reference, by the way), fans swooped in to your defence, and you walked away from it as a quip-worthy comedienne. And unscathed.

I realised right then, the legitimacy of your clout and popularity. It was official: Your behaviour is far too confident and natural to be an act.

Earlier this month, we met again at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, where you were promoting The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. And you greeted me like an old chum: “I love your outfit and how you decided to wear the Mocking Jay pin as an earring! Very clever and very Cinna! I love it!”

No haughty “I’m an Oscar winner” airs, no “When is this press junket going to ever end?” tetchy. You made me like you that bit more when you followed up with a gush about how you’ve always wanted to visit Singapore (and how overjoyed your Singapore fans would be if you make good that promise?).

You see Jen, I jumped on the J-Law Fan Club bandwagon not because you liked my outfit (Ok, it did help a little!) It’s because in the fairly short time you’ve been in the limelight, you’ve been doing something really cool and special. You’ve been nothing but yourself and I really appreciate that. You’re unfiltered (“It’s very good I found acting since I’m not very good at anything much else. Archery and acting is about all I have to offer!”) and honest (“Sexualisation is definitely something that is a part of the entertainment industry. Sex sells and, for some disgusting reasons, young sex sells even more.”)

And you’re very vocal about body image: “I think it’s really important for girls to have people to look up to and to feel good about themselves. I’m never going to starve myself for a part. I don’t want little girls to be like, ‘Oh, I want to look like Katniss, so I’m going to skip dinner’. That’s something that I was really conscious of during training … I was trying to get my body to look fit and strong, not thin and underfed.”

Plus you don’t do diets! “I do exercise! But I don’t diet,” you told me impassionedly. “You can’t work when you’re hungry, you know?”

Oh I know Jen, I know. And that’s why I’m glad you’re using your celebrity and your current role as the silver screen heroine Katniss to debunk some Hollywood myths and unabashedly speak out about important issues and morals all growing girls have to deal with. Thanks to you, young girls everywhere now have a worthy inspiration other than scantily clad twerking pop tartlets.

I can see why you were the perfect choice to bring Katniss, who with her courage and resillence, has become one of the most important female role models for this generation, to celluloid life.

And even if you didn’t expect to become that worthy role model, you’re most certainly taking the responsibility in your stride. “I don’t really think of it as pressure. It’s an honour. That’s a cool thing,” you told me with a smile.

Which makes me think,you really are like Katniss in a some ways. I sensed the poignancy when you talked about how you could relate to her, especially in this second instalment where Katniss goes back home after winning the games. “I know what it’s like to feel like a stranger in your own home too. The way they sometimes stare at me when I get coffee ... I’m like, ‘Please, I’m still a part of this world, just like you’. But, hey, there are ups and downs to this job right?”

I remember telling you I wanted to start off our interview by wishing you that Hunger Games quote —“ May the odds be ever in your favour” — but after seeing you do such an amazing job as Katniss for the second time, I don’t think you actually need it!

And you replied: “Aww, thanks! No, I do!”

Talent, humour and humility: These are some of the reasons why people love you so much, Jen.

It is also why I am writing a gushing open letter to you. Because whether you’ve noticed it or not, you’ve become a bona fide role model across the world. You aren’t just inspiring little girls everywhere, you’re teaching grown women a thing or two, as well.

Yours Sincerely,

The newest member of the J-Law Fan Club