Sure, she's smokin' hot and 18, but Heroes actress Hayden Panettiere has confessed that becoming a mega-star has turned her into a recluse.

"I don't ever go out," she tells the UK's Daily Mirror of her life in the spotlight, where she drives everywhere to avoid being recognized on the street. "I stay at home. I go from garage to garage, and try to keep myself out of sight."

Maybe she's just afraid of sexual harassment.

Hayden, who has catapulted to fame since taking on the role of cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes, thinks that fame can be a giant pain in the ass.

"I love where I live and that I have wonderful friends there and I love what I do, but it really has a major impact on your life," says our girl. "This business is very intrusive. People want to know what you're doing every day, and it becomes less about your craft and your art, and your love for acting, than it is about when you put food in your mouth, or when you're walking your dog."

The lovely Hayden Panettiere has been in the industry since she was 11 months old, when her mother got her cast in the first of more than 50 advertisements.

Hayden herself starred in the daytime soap operas One Life To Live and Guiding Light in her early years, and, now that Heroes has made her a Hollywood A-lister, her next move is to set the big screen alight in various films.

As for following the likes of Lindsay Lohan - being more famous for her legal problems and sexual endeavors than movies and TV - don't bank on it.

"The interesting thing to me is, the glamour of Hollywood has been dimmed down by people that don't necessarily love what they do or their craft," Panettiere says.

"I think people who are mainly in the public eye and deal with this [attention], a lot of them like it, enjoy it. I don't enjoy going out, it's a nightmare in my opinion."

You've got a keeper, Milo Ventimiglia. Be good to her.