Shailene Woodley plays Amy Juergens Credit: ABC Family

16-year-old actress Shailene Woodley plays teen Amy Juergens on the new ABC Family series, "The Secret Life of the American Teenager", which premiered last week. The show claims to be teen-truthful and relatable. Amy plays a "nice" girl who ends up with a teen pregnancy. Creator/writer is Brenda Hampton of "Seventh Heaven" fame so we know the show will be tasteful and still hit the heavy issues. Shailene has been acting since age five and has a long resume of guest spots and sustaining roles on several TV shows like "The O.C." and "Crossing Jordan".

We wanted to know all about the actress and the new show so we sat down for a chat. Check it out!

TeenTelevision: Can you tell us what the series is about and what it's going to explore throughout the season and then a little bit about the character of Amy?

Shailene: The show explores teenagers and decisions they make in high school; like when to have sex decisions. And the awesome thing about our show is it doesn't really refer to drugs or alcohol, which is very rare in TV these days. So I think it's definitely important for the public to know what teenagers do and talk about at high school and for parents to know what their teens are doing, because often they're completely clueless. Amy Juergens is a go-getter, she's excited for life, she wants to go to Julliard, she has all these amazing goals. And then she finds out she's pregnant, and her world kind of comes crashing down and her sense of optimism turns to pessimism. She freaks out, because all she's ever known has been completely turned upside down. And she has no one to talk to about her pregnancy. So it's definitely a hard time in her life.