An afternoon on Sesame Street with First Lady Michelle Obama. A role in a movie with Catherine Zeta-Jones. Over $250,000 a year in earnings. And a job as the new voice of Dora the Explorer.

Not bad for an 11-year-old girl from Sunnyside.

Cleary, she is not your average sixth grader. She is whatever she wants to be, whether that is a singer, a model, an actress or a straight-A student.

Being hired as the latest Dora the Explorer on Nickelodeon is just the next stop on the career train for Fátima Ptacek.

Ptacek said she got the role of Dora after being called in for an audition where she sang and read lines. And while she was so excited to get the job, she had to keep it a secret for more than a year, until last week, when Nickelodeon announced the new Dora in advance of last week’s season premiere.

“All of the Doras were really amazing, and I’m so honored to follow in their footsteps as the voice of Dora the Explorer,” she said.

Ptacek said she records audio in her own voice — there is no special Dora voice — usually once or twice a week for three hours, doing dialogue and song, which she said “is an average day for Dora.”

She said that in the beginning, it was hard recording in a studio behind a microphone.

“I wasn’t used to talking to people who weren’t really talking back to me,” Ptacek said. “And not seeing my own face was a little strange, but I’ve adapted to it and I love it.”

Being the new Dora certainly has its advantages, including at school, where she has a strong group of friends.

Ptacek has a Wikipedia page listing all her career accomplishments, and for an 11-year-old they are extensive, including meeting the First Lady, acting in more than 50 commercials and roles in TV shows and films.

“I definitely feel like I live the life of a princess, if not even better than that,” she said.

She started out doing print work and small photo shoots. Her first big break was a commercial for Chase. Ever since, she has gotten busier and busier. This year alone she has three movies coming out — Anything’s Possible, Tio Papi and The Miracle of Spanish Harlem.

Her parents — a mother from Ecuador and a father of Norwegian, Czech and Irish descent — place a huge importance on education. In fact, Ptacek said the money she has earned in entertainment is in an account that she can access once she graduates college.

And despite all her success in entertainment, Ptacek’s future plans include a life outside the business. She wants to go to Harvard and become a lawyer.

“My education is first above all of this,” she said. “My parents and I set high standards for myself, and going to Harvard is more important than anything I’m doing. I need education in my life.”

And by the way, she also wants to be the first female President of the United States.

Meeting the First Lady has been one of the highlights of Ptacek’s life. They appeared, along with Elmo, together on the 40th anniversary episode of Sesame Street to plant vegetable seeds in a garden.

“Mrs. Obama is such an amazing person,” she said. “She is very tall and I literally look up to her. Her messages about health and obesity and the work she is doing are great. She is super sweet and I’m proud to have worked with her.”

The average person would probably be uneasy or nervous being around the First Lady or movie stars or in front of camera, but not Ptacek.

“My personality has zero percent shyness in me, and I’m never intimidated by anyone,” she said.

Balancing school with such a busy life outside the classroom would probably be difficult for most children. But not for Ptacek, who said the high standards she has for herself make it easy to stay focused.

She said she rarely misses any work and has tutoring sessions to make sure she stays caught up with her studies. Her favorite subjects include social studies, science and math.

And if she does not seem busy enough, Ptacek, who speaks English and Spanish, is studying Mandarin Chinese, which she hopes to practice more when she visits China — hopefully in the near future.

“I’ll be able to speak to so much more of the world than I already can with English and Spanish,” she said.

She said she wants to explore, just like Dora, and also hopes to visit Japan, because she loves Japanese culture and has many Japanese friends, and Ecuador, because she wants to visit one of the countries that are in her blood.

With all the accomplishments at a young age, Ptacek has remained humbled and thankful for all the opportunities she has been given. She said that while acting and singing and modeling will always be a part of her life, she wants to be known for everything that she does.

“I definitely want to do a lot of charity work when I get older,” she said. “I really feel for people that are less fortunate, and I want them to know that we care about them and that they aren’t alone in this world.”

As seen in the Feb. 9 edition of the Queens Tribune