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Who says you have to wait until youre a grown-up to do big things? Meet a dozen Chicago-area kids who are making names for themselves before they even hit high school. Photographs by Lisa Predko
Hyde Park fourth-grader Ideyah Ricketts wrote her first book when she was four years old. You read that right: Ideyah penned Where are the Animals at an age when most kids are mastering their ABCs. Its a book about animals in funny and silly places for children, she says. Her father, Michael, self-published the book under the name Climbing Clouds when she was seven, and soon the young author was touring area classrooms, engaging kids in interactive storytelling sessions she calls Ideyahs Reading Fun Time. I use props, and my dad is my assistant, she explains. Ideyah was a voracious reader before entering pre-kindergarten, according to her dad. By age three she was absorbing anything she could get her eyeballs on. The first chapter books I ever read were Judy Moody and a Tinker Bell one, Ideyah says. I was five. Writing, naturally, felt like the next step. Ideyahs second book, Lyla Lyte and the Liberry Fruit, a tale about four friends who find a magical seed, was released in January. Like her favorite author, Megan McDonald of Judy Moody fame, Ideyah plans to turn Lyla Lyte into a series. Besides continuing her career as an author, Ideyah says she also plans to be a doctor, a teacher and a chef when she grows up. At this rate, we totally believe her. Erin Osmon now-canceled Fox series The Chicago Codebut opera is still her first love. I like the opera house. I like that I get to perform in front of a lot of people, I like wearing the costumes, getting transformed by hair and makeup, and I like that I can be backstage and meet all these people, Tess says. (The Lyric has ruined my children for community theater, notes mother Angela Allyn.) As for her future plans: My ultimate goal is to become a movie star. I joke with my friends that if youre not being nice to me, when Im rich and famous you wont be able to come to my mansion or my parties, she laughs. But for now, I just hope I can keep doing the Lyric. (Tess appears in the Lyrics Aida through March 25.)Martina Sheehan
3 ETHAN CUTKOSKY, 12 ACTOR

2 TESS DINERSTEIN, 11 ACTOR

My mom always reminds us how lucky we are to get paid for our hobbies, says Tess Dinerstein, 11, who along with her mother and older siblings Alec and Maya, counts acting as a supernumerary for Lyric Opera among her pastimes. The Evanston native and cardcarrying SAG member, who cites her older sister as her biggest influence, has also landed commercials and appeared in episodes of the

Ethan Cutkosky isnt sure if he wants to pursue acting when he grows up. Im still trying to figure that out, says the St. Charles native, who started out as a model for print ads when he was four. Thats not what youd expect to hear from a kid whos already got an impressive acting rsum: With several commercials and feature films already under his belt, hes currently costarring in the Showtime series Shameless, an unapologetically adult comedy/drama that just kicked off its sophomore season. Ethan plays Carl, the second youngest of six kids of an alcoholic single father played by William H. Macy. My character, hes more a misunderstood person, Ethan says. Nobody gets him, so he

4 JOSHUA MHOON, 8 PIANO PLAYER

Joshua Mhoons nimble fingers cruise over the piano keys as if hes been playing his whole life, but his feet dont even make it to the floor. The eight-year-old Oak Park piano marvel has music in his geneshis father was a drum prodigy, two of his four older sisters are

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PHOTO: LISA PREDKO; ASSISTANTS: LAUREN BUTTERFIELD & JOANNA PATTERSON; RETOUCHING: SARAH CRUMP

turns [his frustration] into anger and uses it to beat up on people. Although set in Chicago, Shameless shoots only a handful of scenes here; most of the show is taped in Los Angeles. The second season was shot over the summer and early fall, so Ethan didnt miss much school. He also loves to skateboard and play lacrosse. I skate on the [studio] lot. I usually get yelled at by security, he says. Is he permitted to watch his own R-rated show? Ive pretty much seen every episode, he tells us. His mom, Yvonne, reports that she and her husband screen the episodes first, fastforwarding over certain parts. Some of my friends will sneak it, Ethan adds, without their parents knowing.Web Behrens