Slideshow: Writer, Actress Bella Thorne for New Book ‘Autumn Falls’

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Bella Thorne starred on TV’s ‘Shake it Up’ and in the film ‘Blended.’

CHICAGO – 2015 may prove to be huge year for the actress, model and young adult author Bella Thorne. The 17-year-old has many irons in the fire, including roles in several upcoming films this new year. The author in her was in Chicagoland last November, appearing at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, Ill., on behalf of her new novel in the “Autumn Falls.”

Annabelle Avery “Bella” Thorne was born in Florida, and began her career as a child and teen model. After expanding into acting, Thorne got her first big break in the TV series “My Own Worst Enemy” (2008). After doing some independent films, she got the lead in the Disney Channel series, “Shake it Up,” portraying CeCe Jones. Art imitated life for that show, because Thorne’s character had dyslexia, a condition that Thorne shares with the character in her real life. That hasn’t stopped the ambitious multi-tasker from signing a recording contract with Hollywood Records, writing a young adult series of books titled “Autumn Falls” and co-starring with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore in the 2014 film “Blended.”

HollywoodChicago.com interviewed Thorne last year, and here are a couple of the questions she answered…

HollywoodChicago.com: What inspired you to write ‘Autumn Falls,’ and what will the series of books be about?

Bella Thorne: There are three books in the series, and they will be published by Random House. The series is about a girl named Autumn Falls, who moves to Miami after her father passes away. In Florida, she doesn’t fit in, she is very pale and has red frizzy hair – in a place where everyone is blonde and tan. Her Dad leaves her a journal to write in during her upcoming high school days, which she thinks is odd.

When she writes in the journal, everything she writes about comes to life. But since she is dyslexic, everything that comes to life is a bit wonky, and backfires on her throughout the series. I wrote it because I’m dyslexic, and wanted to teach people who have the condition that if I can publish three books, nobody can tell them what they can’t do.

HollywoodChicago.com: Since you’re only in your mid-teens and looking to break out even further, what are some of the bummers of the industry that you think might even get more difficult as you become older?

Thorne: I think it will be the press, what they write isn’t that fun. This is fun, this is okay, but when the press try to make you out as somebody you are not, that to me is not fun. The press likes to portray me in a certain way, and they don’t even know me. With the internet, it just gets worse. But I love my fans, and I will be straightforward with them about who I am, I never lie. Luckily I trust that they will know who I am.

Photographer Joe Arce of HollywoodChicago.com was at the Bella Thorne appearance, and captured these Exclusive Portraits, as she met admirers and signed her new book. Click “Next” and “Previous” to scan through the slideshow or jump directly to individual photos with the captioned links below. All images © Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com.

1. BELLA1 [19]: Bella Thorne for her novel ‘Autumn Falls,’ on November 15th, 2014.
2. BELLA2 [17]: Bella Thorne appeared at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville.
3. BELLA3 [20]: Bella Thorne starred on TV’s ‘Shake it Up’ and in the film ‘Blended.’

[21]	By PATRICK McDONALD [22] Writer, Editorial Coordinator HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com [21]