Remember the one about the young popsie who wants to be taken seriously? Well there's another one and she's French, 19 years of age, her name 's Vanessa Paradis and, whatever it takes, she's gonna be a big, respected star. Paradis started off as a singer (aged 14), turned her talents to acting (17), became the face of Chanel (18), following in the footsteps of Catherine Deneuve, Carole Bouquet and Ines de la Fressange, and is now a singer again.

This month her third album, Vanessa Paradis, is being released. As with most subtitled stars, international fame is limited. Her latest venture, however, is not tainted with that stylish, though provincial, made-in-France image. Lenny Kravitz has produced her album and Lenny Kravitz is a good producer, a respected song-writer and a big American star.

With Kravitz's credit on the record sleeve, she has a chance to be promoted from Left Bank nymphet to MTV pop star and to overcome that problem. Paradis has the kind of problem that only those that are born pouting and perfectly formed worry about, i.e. too beautiful to be taken seriously. She has the same kittenish mannerisms as Bardot and looks that make men three times her age 'fascinated' (as she puts it), or 'fantasize' (as they might if they were honest).

The lust affair began in 1987 when "Joe Le Taxi" became a major hit single in France. It then reached the top 10 in Britain and was played as many times in Eurodiscos as Jane Birkin's "Je T'Aime Non Plus." The singer was an unknown schoolgirl - Vanessa Paradis was 14. Like Birkin's hit, the record was produced by the late Serge Gainsbourg [this is incorrect, Serge Gainsbourg did not get involved in Vanessa's career until after Joe le Taxi was released], a man who made his name molding pubescent French girls into stars: he had a hand in the careers of France Gall, Isabelle Adjani and Brigitte Bardot, married Birkin, and put Paradis on the right track. Her 'normal childhood' (she knew at the age of 6 she wanted to perform and used to sing and dance at family gatherings) was cut short when she met Gainsbourg through her uncle, the actor Didier Pain.

Paradis' purrs and heavy breathing on "Joe Le Taxi" - the microphone in her hands looked (unintentionally) phallic - caused a stir. Women spat at her and called her names. Men dreamt about her and called her names.

Paradis says she was confused. Not so confused, however, to call it a day and get back to adolescence. She was not going to be some one-hit wannabe. No one was going to mold her into a sexy airhead. Looking back she says, "People think because you are young, that people control you and do with you what they want. But this is not a question of age but a question of personality and character. If you know what you want to do, you just have to impose your ideas and don't let people control you. People don't stop talking about me; they think they know me but they don't know shit. They create things about me, but they're completely wrong."

So what did she do next? She decided to have a go at acting, jumped at the chance to star in Jean-Claude Brisseau's art house film Noce Blanche, and received a French equivalent of an Oscar for her meaty part. It could have been a terrible mistake, but luckily Paradis was a natural as the teenager who seduces her 50-year-old teacher. The nude scenes - in the name of art, naturellement - impressed the French (both sexes). Paradis was just 17, and she was becoming a star. Two years on, her image appeared in glossy magazines the world over. Last year Chanel made her their Coco girl. She received a handsome fee (her contract is to be renewed annually) for swinging on a perch in a giant gilded birdcage wearing fishnet tights, leotard, Chanel cosmetics and Coco scent. (It is said that the deft stroke of the retoucher's brush lengthened her thighs in the advertisement.)

When Paradis, 5 foot 4", walks into a room, eyes are not drawn to her legs. It is her face - a cherub with attitude, a street urchin with inherent sophistication that catches your attention. In Paradis' case the eyes (cat-like and green), the hair (exceeding long, poker straight and blonde), and the expressions (pout/gap-toothed smirk/pout) have it. Her legs are short(ish) but shapely.

If you say 'Vanessa Paradis' to fashion photographers they get excited. They visualize spiked heels, stockings, LBD (little black dress) or something smaller, rolling about on a bed and all captured in moody black and white. She knows this. Her PR claims Paradis is having none of it. She does her own hair and make-up, brings her own clothes and pulls two expressions - moody pout, sulky pout. What photographers get is what Paradis wants to give them. She once said that performing in front of the cameras was like being with a lover - 'I was completely drawn to it' - but today she wants to move away from her sexy image. 'I'm not trying to be sexy and do things so that they can say I'm a sex symbol. I don't care about all this shit. It's really bullshit. People think that you are just a good image and that's it. They want me to wear only sexy things. So I say (to photographers), 'Just relax. Try and think of another way.' "

She spends all her money on clothes, particularly second-hand ones. Currently her favorite period is the '70s. To be fair, she did arrive at the photo session wearing a cheesecloth tunic, beads and jeans, and her final clothes change was into a hippyish, love-child outfit.

When she appears in front of the camera, however, after applying her own make-up and brushing her hair to look the glamorous side of unkempt, she wears a knitted camisole and camiknickers and high-heeled suede boots (her choice). Then she changes into her own fake-leopardskin mini raincoat (her choice again) but keeps the high-heeled suede boots. Despite being tired and having a cold (it makes her husky voice even sexier), Paradis slips into her outfits like a true professional. She is, after all, one of France's most photographed women.

Once that's over Paradis pulls on her jeans and beads, lights a cigarette and begins her life story. Her English is excellent, her accent touchingly French. Only when she swears does she sound American. Paradis does not mince her words.

She was born in a suburb of Paris. Her father is a decorator turned interior designer. Her mother handles the financial side of his business. She had a 'normal childhood' but she always felt different from her school friends. Last year she said in an interview, "I don't want to sound pretentious but ever since I was tiny people have said, "Oh, isn't she pretty?" It became embarrassing." She also admitted, "It is true, it is difficult to imagine how a 13-year-old can have male friends of 40."

Now she says, "Yes, most of my friends are men, but it has always been like that. At school all my friends were boys. Girls don't really like me." After "Joe Le Taxi," she tried to work hard at school "for my mom." "I tried to make an effort but it didn't work. My mind was gone already." She left home at 16 to "live with a guy for three years. My parents were very frightened but they trusted me and they trusted the guy, so that was fine." She likes men who are sincere, make her laugh, and who are "a little crazy."

Her first film was sexy and she was taken seriously. But she says, "I don't want to do movies just to say, yeah, I'm an actress. I just wanna do the right things. I would die to do a second movie. I'm just waiting for the right script. People are not original. They just send me what they saw about me." Sexy parts? "I don't want to do those." Does she want to remain in the French art house genre or make it in Hollywood? "I don't care."

After the film, her next big break was the Chanel job, which made her a household name in France, but, she says, "It hasn't made me more famous in France. It's just something more." Chanel is getting none of the credit.

Currently single, Paradis is looking for "a place of my own" to buy in Paris. She spends her time "talking and laughing with friends." She wants to spend more time with her family, see her 8-year-old sister growing up. All this and she says she still doesn't know the meaning of the term "teeny bopper."