Is it good to be an actress? Should I be one?

Okay - a few things you need to understand.
What you look like doesn't matter a bit. And never believe people when they tell you stuff like that - they're just being kind. At 13, most kids are told they're cute or gorgeous, and no - you're NOT a great actress.
Having connections might help many years in the future, after you've had years of training and experience, but not yet.

Your mom is partly right. The reason it's a difficult career is because every job is a temporary one, and could easily be your last. It's rare for any actor to get more than about 10 days' paid acting work a year. The rest of the time they all work very long hours at ordinary jobs just to afford to live.
Actors have no job security, no stability, no fixed place to live, no idea where the next job is coming from, and it's 99% very hard work. One in a million actors does it as a 'full-time job'.
The 'behind the scenes' stuff you see on TV is a few very small edited clips out of an actor's life - it's nothing like you imagine.

Actors don't need managers at all. Producers are businessmen, but they don't try to make life hard for their employees. Yes - a few actors get addicted to alcohol and drugs - but no more than in any other career. It's just that if an A-List actor has a cocaine habit, it's in the national news. If an anonymous office worker gets a drug problem, no-one get to hear about it.

But it IS a very hard career to choose. Actors get rejected, criticized, laughed at, told they're a failure almost every day - and that's terribly upsetting.

If you really want to try, you'd need to study for many years at a good acting school, and ideally then at university. You'd also need loads of stage experience with a good community theatre, and later on student films, short films and indies. You can't just 'get a job' in acting. It's a very competitive business, and without professional training you can't even get an audition.

Take this one step at a time.

Sadly, the best that almost all actors will ever get is a few minor roles in small productions.
Watch any movie, and count the number of actors in the cast list at the end which you hardly noticed - 'fifth bad guy', 'blonde prostitute', 'cop with ladder' and so on - they all imagined themselves up there at the top, but for the vast majority, that's as good as it gets.

Good luck!

You really have a false idea of what a career in acting looks like.

Well, you have the ego to be a Kardashian, but not a real actress.

Please please listen to your mom is sooooo right I had a cousin in the Hollywood acting industry and he went through a COMPLETE transformation. He looked different ( in a weird way) and he acted different ( very odd and aloof when he used to be very kind and outgoing). He would do cocaine to keep him super skinny but then later got addicted and began to do higher level drugs. He passed away in 2011. ALOT of things are going on behind the scenes in our entertainment industry that you don't know about. Listen to your mom she speaks the truth.

Nothing of what I'm about to say is to put you off, it is simply what I wish someone had told me when I was your age! There is nothing to say you can't be an actress if you want to be but you have to get your head straight first because from what you've written here, your idea of the acting industry is very far from the truth.
What I'm going to say is not what you want to hear. The reason you haven't picked a best answer yet is because you're waiting for someone to say 'yeAH sure everything your mum says is wrong!' - but the fact is, she is right.

1. Being gorgeous counts for nothing. That's not to say it's a bad thing - there will always be work for pretty girls, always - but the fact is, acting schools don't judge people on their looks. Most actors just look like average people - if you're 'gorgeous', you could be a model but that doesn't make you a good actor. The glamourous superstars you see in Hollywood films are not a representation of what all actresses are like, in fact they only make up a small proportion. The industry needs people of all shapes and sizes to play all kinds of roles. Being gorgeous doesn't make you more employable than another actress your age. Plus, at the age you're at, most people get told they're gorgeous - sorry to burst your bubble but you come across as egotistical.

2. How do you know you 'have potential'? Who told you that? I'll tell you a story - when I was 13 I played Eliza in My Fair Lady at school. I had people telling me I was amazing, super gifted, a real talent. I had so many people telling me I was as good as a Broadway star, I actually started to believe them. Then I had my first professional audition for a commerical a few months later and blew it big time. I realised that actually, I wasn't as talented as my family and friends were telling me I was and there were literally thousands of other 13 year old girls just like me who were better actresses because they had worked on their talents rather than just sitting about believing every nice thing everyone said about them. It was crushing at the time, but you know what I did? I joined an acting club and practiced, practiced, practiced. I'm 18 now - I know I'm not quite at the Broadway standard just yet, but I've worked hard and now I am a better performer than I was then. The point I'm making is, you can't just listen to your friends telling your how great you are. You need a reality check. At 13, there is no way you can be a great actor. Stop believing your own hype, join a club and work on your craft instead of just waltzing about telling people how great you think your are. Pride always comes before a fall.

3. Connections with your cousin aren't the way into the industry. Trust me, I have 3 cousins in the industry and that's no advantage. And as for these 'agencies' where you pay to be a part of them, they are nothing but money making scams, they're best avoided. If you want to be an actor, you need to audition for a professional drama school when you're old enough. If you live in the UK, check out the DramaUK website's list of good schools. Once you get in, you will train for three years and then perform in front of agents. Those agents will then decide whether they want you on their books. These schools are tough to get into but if you work hard enough now, you will succeed. It will be tricky and very tiring but if you're persistent and grounded, you can do it! Having said that, graduating from one of these schools is no guarantee of stardom. You may spend your life playing small parts or go into teaching acting in schools. Not that these are bad things, teaching is a very respectable, secure profession and also, small parts are parts nonetheless, but what I'm trying to say is you won't always be the lead role in every play or movie you are in. Acting schools are no guarantee of fame but let's face it, if someone only wanted to be an actor just to be famous, they're not going to get into one of those schools in the first place.

4. 'Getting a job in acting' is not the answer. Acting work is always temporary and it often doesn't pay a lot. The average actor only works about 11 weeks in the year and the rest they have a 'resting job' (like hairdressing or working in a call centre). The actor's life is a hard one - there is no financial security and although your mum is wrong about producers - they are actually very nice people - it can be a very harsh environment and you need a thick skin. You will face lots of rejection - 9 out of 10 auditions you will fail, no matter how good you are. Even the best BAFTA winning actors get turned away from auditions because they're 'not right for the part'. You have to be prepared to live a life like that.

5. As for drugs and alcohol, you would have to be a pretty careless actor to get hooked on that stuff. Without your fitness and your voice, you can't do 8 shows a week. Yes, some actors do drugs and drink but not the good ones. The odd Hollywood A-Lister does, yes, but most actors actually value their health because their body and voice are their tools of the trade. You are supposed to look after them like a F1 driver looks after his car.

I DON'T SAY ANY OF THIS TO SCARE YOU!! It is simply the truth. I wish you all the best in becoming an actress but you need to think long and hard about the facts of an actor's life before you go wading in there. If you don't think this is the life for you, you can always join a drama club as a hobby and work towards a career in something else!

"Everyone tells me I'm gorgeous all the time". Suck to be you. You need TALENT to be an actor.

For every successful actress there are thousands who struggle to make ends meet and tens of thousands more who try but fail. As long as you go into it knowing the odds are against you and that you'll need a good backup profession to support yourself with, and that it can take many years, even decades of very hard work and complete dedication to achieve success, go for it.