Bangladeshi Child Star Hopes Life Will Mirror Art

"My two favorite episodes are when I talk to a tree about my deep hopes to go back to school and when my parents eventually let me go back and my classmates cheer," Shimu said. "Those story lines were so nice."

Shimu's real-life story is as dramatic as any TV script. She said she doesn't know what happened to her father. When she was 4 1/2, her mother left her to marry a man who didn't want a child from a past relationship.

Her grandmother, frail and sick with stomach problems, took her in. But Shimu wandered around the Dhaka slums, often alone. A theater group for street children spotted her.

The plays that the group performed were straight from the children's own lives, stories about young people working in markets and as porters, or about orphans vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

Over the years, Shimu showed a natural ability to express genuine emotion in front of audiences, her theater director said.

"She had this capacity to deal with her life. And many of these children lead lives no child should ever have to experience," said Saju Mehedi Hassan, leader of the theater group, Children Without a Home. "Things we couldn't say directly about that type of suffering, she was able to say in acting."

In 2005, UNICEF recruited Shimu for an ensemble show promoting education for working children. That show became the top-rated program on state-owned television. Shimu was then chosen to be Alo, the main star of a new show, but her own problems did not diminish.

She had to drop out of school last year when her grandfather, a fisherman, wasn't making enough money to support her. Her grandmother sent her to live in a village with her uncle. Her appearances on television also increased the teasing and unwanted attention from boys.

Shimu was able to come back to Dhaka only after convincing her grandmother that she should keep studying so she could better support her family in the future.

Her friends at the theater group, where she still spends her afternoons, say they look up to Shimu because fame hasn't changed her. They also say they feel deeply connected to the story lines.

"It made me so upset when Alo stops going to school, since we all have friends in this situation," said Sujki Sun Mim, 13 and a fan of Shimu's. "My neighbor had to flee from her village in the rural areas because she was being forced to marry. She came to Dhaka to work as a maid. I always ask her over to watch the show. I really wish she could get schooling."

The story is also helping to educate boys.