Her big risk, her baby plans, and why she still believes in happily ever after.After a rough year, Jennifer Aniston is learning to love, laugh, and live it up. How she battled back from heartbreak and the surprising secret that has her smiling.

  Last year, a shocking thing happened to Jennifer Aniston.

  Yes, her marriage to Brad Pitt ended, and, yes, her heart was broken while millions watched. But the most stunning change in Jennifer`s life was in her state of mind: Neither wounded nor self-pitying, the star actually began to seem happy.

  Not just happy: These days, with four new films and a new romance, Jennifer is smiling, golden, and more adorable than ever. 'I gotta say, you can`t find a more graceful person than Jennifer,' says Rob Reiner, the director of her recent film Rumor Has It... "I've been so impressed. With all the struggles, she`s handled things unbelievably well. [On the set] I knew what she was going through, yet she wasn't hiding under a bushel; she was taking whatever licks she had to take and hanging in there."

  Now Jennifer's future seems so bright, she'll soon need extra pairs of Gucci sunglasses. In addition to the recently released Derailed and Rumor Has It..., she stars in the comedy The Break Up, due out this summer. And sweetly goofy co-star Vince Vaughn has been keeping her company in real life too. Jennifer`s transition from small-screen Friend to box office icon appears to be right on track. Says Peyton Reed, director of the Break Up: "She is every bit a movie star. When she comes on-screen, you can`t take your eyes off her."

  And all eyes have been on Jennifer offscreen as well, as she`s begun her new life as a single woman. Not only have the paparazzi followed her every move, but Brad's increasingly intense romance with Angelina Jolie (now pregnant) has been constant tabloid fodder. Yet Jennifer has managed to emerge from the firestorm with her dignity intact. It helped to throw herself into her work-first, Rumor Has It..., which was still filming when her marriage began to dissolve, then The Break Up once the split was official. "Of course, the irony wasn`t lost on us that she was doing a movie called The Break Up while in the middle of a breakup," says director Reed. Speaking of her recent trio of films - Derailed, Rumor Has It..., and The Break Up - Jennifer quipped, "They should be sold as a box set - like A Year in the Life."

  Jennifer has often said that her girlfriends have helped her through the rough times: "It will be hard to find a man who can live up to any of them" is how she`s put it. Apparently, those friends are lucky in return. "She has such a big heart," says Richard Jenkins, who played her father in Rumor Has It.... "When you meet her, you think, 'I bet when you're her friend, you`re always her friend.'"

  One such pal is Angela Levin, a makeup artist who worked with Jennifer on Rumor Has It... and The Break Up. "I had done Lisa Kudrow's makeup in the past, and when Jennifer found out I was working on Rumor Has It..., we became instant friends," Levin explains. "I think no matter who you are, whether you`re a big movie star or a housewife, when you go through something like a divorce, it`s a shock on your heart, and it tends to show on your face. And yet Jennifer hardly needed any makeup to look amazing."

  Indeed, Jennifer has learned how to put her best face forward and rediscover simple pleasures - whether that means cocooning for a weekend or shaking it on the dance floor. After finishing The Break Up, which was shot in Chicago, she returned to her Malibu, California, pad and didn`t leave for six days. Close friends came over, and she sunbathed, walked on the beach, caught up on reading, and did yoga. Even her look reflects her new, laid-back attitude. Her hair, which has been everything from pin straight to painstakingly coiffed, is now longer, looser, and blonder than in years past. "She's living at the beach right now, so why not go with that?" explained her longtime pal and stylist Chris McMillan. "She's very good at taking care of herself,`` adds Levin. "I do some of her skin treatments, at her house, and she enjoys them. But she doesn't need a lot - her skin is lovely - and because we're friends, it`s also a social event."

  Jennifer is staying healthy too. Except for the occasional indulgence in guacamole and margaritas, she sticks to a diet that`s heavy on salmon and low on carbohydrates. She practices yoga four times a week and hops on the elliptical trainer on the other days, maintaining the same discipline she showed during the decade she was on Friends. Even while visiting Vince Vaughn's father in Scottsdale, Arizona, for Thanksgiving, she worked out daily in the gym at the Sanctuary, the resort where she and Vaughn stayed for extra privacy. But the real key to her new glow is that "Jennifer has an amazing ability to see the bright side of things," says Levin. "She has a very healthy, positive outlook on life, and it really does show. I think the beauty secret for a lot of women is happiness - it shows on your face."

  Jennifer has not only a new and improved look but also a new attitude about romance. After some serious introspection, she's now ready to risk her heart again: "You just wake up one day and start to feel like, Yeah, I think I'm open to that now." In The Break Up, Vaughn plays the ex-boyfriends she`s forced to share a home with. "Vince and Jen had great chemistry," notes director Reed. "They worked so well on all levels - they were great together."

  While it remains to be seen if Jennifer has found the new love of her life in Vaughn, she definitely came away from The Break Up with a new gal pal. Actress Joey Lauren Adams, who costars in the movie, was surprised to find America's favorite Friend reaching out to her. "I was going back and forth between Los Angeles and Chicago a lot during the shooting of The Break Up," Adams explains. "Jennifer would give me free rides on the private plane that the studio let her use, which was really sweet and so generous. Jennifer went out of her way to befriend me - she went above and beyond. It never felt forced."

  On those plane rides to and from Chicago, Jennifer wasn't shy or guarded; instead, she opened her heart and shared her feelings. "She's so honest and up-front," Adams recalls. "She's not a person who has all these walls built up. You can see inside her - she's very open, in a beautiful way. You'd think that after years and years in America's living rooms and the sort of fame that brings, she'd become more distant from people for her own sanity. But she doesn't say "I'm going to shut myself off." Instead she says, "I'm still going to live my life.'"

  Jennifer is even taking steps toward a reconciliation with her mother, Nancy. The two have been estranged for almost a decade, ever since Nancy traded on Jennifer`s early Friends success by talking to a tabloid TV show and later writing a book. But going through rough times has made Jennifer realize that sometimes a girl needs her mom. "I'm thrilled," Jennifer said of the reunion. "Who knew that this [divorce] would be the thing to initiate it? It's amazing. It's like we get to reintroduce ourselves to each other. I`m just happy she`s still here." So far, the pair have taken "baby steps," as Jennifer explained, toward building their relationship, with Jennifer announcing: "It's been really, really nice."

  These days, Jennifer could probably write a book on how to handle life's rough patches with class. ("My therapist says you're allowed only one day to be a victim - that's it!" she has said.) But now, she has plenty to look forward to. There's yet another film, Friends with Money, on the horizon, plus a number of personal goals to achieve. She definitely wants to remarry ("I just really like being in a partnership") and become a mom, having declared that she'd like a couple of kids ("In the next year, I`d like to be on the path to having a family"). But right now, her greatest wish is pretty simple: "Let's let everybody move on and live their lives, and hopefully everybody will be really happy."