DOTS & STRIPES : Actress Pamela Springsteen in Summer Sportswear

RIGHT OFF THE bat, Pamela Springsteen makes it clear that she prefers to talk about her career, not her family ties. The petite actress is 12 years younger than brother Bruce, who was “out of the house,” she says, when she was growing up in San Mateo. Determined to act, she was first seen as a cheerleader in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” What followed were teen parts in “a bunch of movies. I usually get cast very young because I look so young,” laments Springsteen, who is 26. “But at least I’m not playing a cheerleader anymore.” She’s just completed “Indian Summer” with Karen Black. “It’s a nice little film that takes place in the 1940s,” says Springsteen, who found it easy to relate to the period. “I’ve always bought ‘40s clothes, mostly in thrift stores.” But lately she’s changed her style and says the dots and stripes that she wears here fit her new image: “I love these outfits. And I like close-fitting clothes.” To wear them well, she jogs every other day. “But I do like chocolate-chip cookies,” she adds with true teen fervor.

Hair: Katharina Ehrhardt/ Celestine-Cloutier; makeup: Carol Shaw/Cloutier; styling: Joanna Dendel