As Ashley Jeurgens on The Secret Life of the American Teenager, India Eisley plays the cynical younger sister of Sheilene Woodley’s Amy Jeurgens.

The actress took time to speak to TV Fanatic this week about her character, in what direction the show is heading, and why she thinks it's reached such popularity...

In real life you're a few years older than the character you play. Do you find that challenging?
Not really. I think if you’ve gone through being 13, 14 and 15, it’s pretty easy to understand how she feels in certain things.

Will we see Ashley pursue Ricky again?
I don’t think so. I think the whole thing really hurt her, and she feel s a bit deflated. Anything in that position will feel kind of pathetic and embarrassed. I don’t think she’d ever try and pursue it again. She is very hurt because she genuinely thought that he loved her and it changed so suddenly that it took her aback.

Will Amy and Ashley fully repair their relationship?
Yeah, I think Ashley has a lot of pent-up frustrations with Amy. I think she is a bit jealous of her. I think those kinds of things were there before she tried to pursue Ricky. I think they do repair things but only so much because there’s always under the surface feelings and envy.

If you were in Ashley’s position with Adrian, would you handle things the same way?
Yeah. If I had a friend that was in that position, or any kind of challenging position, I would just probably try and be a good listener. I wouldn’t meddle around, I would just be there for them if they needed something to talk to.

Why do you think people are so attracted to The Secret Life of the American Teenager?
It has such a wide appeal because, for parents and children, it tackles a lot of issues that normally it would be very difficult to talk about. It gives them an opening to converse about things that they ordinarily wouldn’t or topics that they would avoid normally. It does deal with realistic issues on the surface, but its still in an entertaining way so its not depressing [laughs]. It’s not too much into the dark part of it.

What kind of career goals do you have for yourself?
I would love to be doing film. That’s initially why I got into acting is because I love movies. So hopefully that.