There’s a lot I love about being from the west coast, but “Hunger Games” actress Jennifer Lawrence makes me wish I was raised in the south. The burger and beer loving Kentucky native, whom co-star Woody Harrelson said doesn’t have an arrogant bone in her body, is so anti-pristine that she’s against washing her hands after using the bathroom.

When you land a career-defining role in a wildly popular film, you probably don’t particularly understand why your size would be a major discussion point.

That appears to be the line of thinking of “Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence, who was called a “big-boned lady” with too much “lingering baby fat” for the part of impoverished, starving Katniss Everdeen in the immediate aftermath of the flick’s release.

If you haven’t noticed, I have the biggest girl crush on “Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence. She’s pretty much everything you could ever want in a young woman: Beautiful, tough, uninhibited, and a Kentucky native (hey, she provides a much-needed balance among all the Californians and New Yorkers swarming the Hollywood scene). Oh, and she was nominated for an Academy Award before reaching legal drinking age, so it goes without saying that we can’t get enough of her, even during a week in which her newly released movie is dominating at the box office. That’s why we’re thrilled that her latest trailer, “House at the End of the Street” has just been released.

Since Suzanne Collins’s novel, “Hunger Games” became a smash hit in 2010, readers everywhere have been quick to declare it a much more beneficial book for young adults than Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight.” Before “Hunger Games” even hit theaters last week, people everywhere wondered which franchise would fare better onscreen, and gung-ho “Hunger Games” fans were undoubtedly pleased when their flick of preference surpassed two of the “Twilight” saga movies in opening weekend sales, but the two vastly different series never should have been pitted against each other or compared in the first place.

In the past few years, “curvy” actresses — or rather those who don’t fit the standard size two Hollywood mold — have started to be appreciated by the media, but not without their bodies being picked apart. The latest celebrity to endure evaluations for her figure is “Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence, who some say is a tad too “big” to portray impoverished teenager Katniss Everdeen.

The clock is ticking . . . we have less than three weeks until the premiere of The Hunger Gamesmovie. There are so many reasons why the trilogy appeals to us — we’re awed by Katniss’s strength and pluck, qualities we can all definitely use in the workplace. Although the office isn’t exactly a “kill or be killed” environment, there are plenty of lessons we can learn from our favorite heroine.