Helen Flanagan has confirmed she is leaving Coronation Street.
The 21-year-old actress has played flamboyant and feisty Rosie Webster for 12 years. She will film her final scenes at Christmas and her character will leave the street in February 2012.
Flanagan told the Sunday Mirror: "I have played Rosie for more than half my life and I feel the time has come for me to move on and try something new. I am very excited about what the future might hold for me.
"I have loved playing Rosie and during my time growing up on Corrie I have made some amazing friends and learnt an awful lot."
Coronation Street's producer Phil Collinson said: "We are sorry to see Helen go but wish her every success for the future."
Flanagan took a three-month break from the soap earlier this year and has been suffering from panic attacks since she returned. She is reportedly leaving three months before the end of her contract.
Since she took over the part of Kevin and Sally Webtser's oldest daughter Rosie in 2000, Helen has seen the character through several dramatic storylines.
Rosie had an affair with her teacher, John Stape, who went on to kidnap her after she ended their relationship.
She went through a Goth phase in her teens but is now an aspiring model with her own spin-off online show Just Rosie, about her modelling work in London.