I AM reading a book entitled The Girl Within. The author Emily Hancock says that a woman's most authentic self emerges when she is about 11 years old. Can you recall what you were like, at age 11?

When I was 11, my family and friends called me Babe. They probably thought I was cute. Not my older brother though. He called me Cassius Clay -- Muhammad Ali to the generation after mine. I probably would not mind it now if somebody called me Cassius Clay (maybe Muhammad Ali would mind) but at that age, I didn't want to be regarded the clone of a boxer. My brother also called me Thick Lips -- at a time when "kissable" lips were not yet in fashion. He agreed to call me Babe years later, but only because he had seen the movie, Babe - Pig in the City.

A psychologist would have diagnosed me as a person with credibility problems or suicidal tendencies. My favorite expression then was: cross my heart and hope to die. My motto? Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.

My favorite fairy tale was "The Ugly Duckling". I could see myself being transformed into a swan. I watched the movie Roman Holiday three times -- this is the movie where Audrey Hepburn plays the role of a young princess masquerading as a commoner and, of course, in the end she wins the heart of the real commoner, the character played by Gregory Peck.

I loved stories where people impersonated characters other than themselves. I loved "The Prince and the Pauper". I especially liked the idea of a prince pretending to be a pauper... more fun than a pauper pretending to be a prince.

My favorite song was "When I grow to be a lady..." I was sure I would end up marrying Prince Charles (he looked cuter then).

My favorite book was "Little Women". I wanted to be all the four daughters in the book. I wanted to be sophisticated like Meg, a writer like Jo, a pianist like Beth, and an artist like Amy.

I would have given anything to be Sleeping Beauty in a school play or Alice in Wonderland or even just Little Red Riding Hood. But the nuns in my school could not have recognized a star if one crashed into them. Instead, they made me play the role of a rabbit or a jester or The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. What a bunch of unimaginative creatures.

Well, I may have been my most authentic self at age 11 as Emily Hancock claims but I have done a bit of growing up nevertheless. I am not sorry at all that I married my commoner husband instead of Prince Charles and I won't tell you why. That is a conjugal secret. When I watched the movie version of "Little Women" a few years ago, I just wanted to be the mother, Mrs. March -- the character that Susan Sarandon played.

Today, I no longer pretend to be a person other than the one I have become (although I still have fantasies about wearing a size 4 dress in the near future). And although I may not look it, I believe I have graduated from an "eat-all-you-can" glutton who wanted to have it all at age 11 to a fine diner who, in old age, has finally learned how to order a la carte.