So they may not know what life is like without the internet or cell phone, but celebrities born after 1994 are making major contributions to the style game.
Stars like Marsai Martin, Zendaya and Trevor Jackson are defining fashion on their own terms and forcing the rest of us to take notice.
These are some of the most stylish young Black stars in Hollywood.
Marsai Martin stole our hearts at age 9 as the tough-talking twin Diane Johnson on ABC’s Black-ish. Now, at age 20, she’s stealing the show on red carpets everywhere with her unmistakeable style. In an interview with USA Today, Martin says the key to looking great is being comfortable.
“I’m very comfortable (in what I wear). That’s always the top priority for me, is to be able to feel comfortable within myself,” she said. “And making sure that I’m flowing easily and that I can just always stay active and moving around and do my thing.”
The only thing we love more than “A Wrinkle in Time” star Storm Reid’s style is her sense of principle. She and her stylist make sure that every designer she wears aligns with her values. “I like to have fun, but stay within what we believe in,” she said.
When asked to describe her style, “You” star Tati Gabrielle says, “It’s all over the place.”
“My mom calls me her Bohemian child, because I was a hippie, spacey kid,” the 28-year-old told W. “Still am, I guess.”
Olly Sholotan plays prep school student Carlton Banks in Peacock’s “Bel-Air.” But as the 26-year-old actor and musician told The Root, he has fun playing with his style.
If you don’t know “Bel-Air’s” Coco Jones, you’d better start paying attention. From the Cannes Film Festival to New York Fashion Week, she shows up and shows out on red carpets all over the world.
But besides looking great, Jones says one of her favorite things to do at high-fashion events is catch up with other fashionable friends.
“My favorite part of the event was catching up with the girlies! I love running into fellow artists and creatives and chopping it up,” she told them about NYFW.
“Star Wars: The Acolyte” star Amandla Stenberg says she doesn’t allow her style to be confined by traditional gender stereotypes.
“I think something that was a huge limitation for me was gender. I thought that I had to dress a certain way in order to appear female...and once I lifted that limitation off of myself of trying to look digestible, especially to the male gaze, it was a lot easier for me to find what style actually suited me,” the 25-year-old star told InStyle.
Actress Yara Shahidi always looks great. But she told Who What Wear that a white button-down blouse is one of her favorite closet basics– something that forces her to play with accessories to put her personal stamp on her looks.
“Because my wardrobe [on] so many days is a white button-down, I really do lean on jewelry as that point of perspective or that ‘something interesting,’” she said.
Yara’s “Grown-ish” costar Trevor Jackson has a smooth style of his own. And while he likes the finer things in life, he says his shoes need to be fit for dancing.
“I’m not trying to spend $1,500 on a shoe. That’s just me, because I’m always dancing or running or doing some craziness and messing up sneakers. Expensive shoes are not the goal. House of Hounds are nice boots. They have a lot of different styles,” he told GQ.
We couldn’t have a list of stylish young stars without including Zendaya. The 28-year-old actress stays fly wherever she goes. But as her stylist and image architect Law Roach said, her style keeps changing.
“Her style has evolved just like her womanhood,” he said. “What people tend to forget is that your palette for fashion also matures the way your palette for food does. And things that you didn’t like when you were younger change over time.”
Unlike most of the stars on this list, former First Daughter Malia Obama tends to keep a low profile. But when she does pop out, everyone is watching. When asked about a plaid Vivienne Westwood look she wore to the Deauville American Film Festival in France in September 2024, Obama said, “I don’t know as much about fashion. But I’m happy to be wearing it.”
When it comes to her style, 21-year-old “Little Fires Everywhere” star Lexi Underwood says she loves to borrow from the past, particularly the 1990s.
“We’re taking inspiration from so many other generations. A lot of the same trends that were big in the ‘80s and ‘90s are coming back now. We’re just being very free and unapologetic to the choices that we make, especially when it comes to fashion. I hope that future generations are going to come back and look at our stuff and be like, ‘Hey, that’s cute. Let’s bring that trend back,’” she said.
We love 24-year-old actress Savannah Lee Smith’s style. But the “Gossip Girl” star said it was the show’s costume designer, Eric Daman, who gave her a crash course in fashion.
“Every time I go to a fitting, he’s like, ‘Do you know this brand?’ And I’m like, ‘No no no’; I look it up, I write it down in my Notes app, like, ‘I need this dress.’ It’s an educational thing for me,” she said.
When asked by Esquire to describe his personal style, 22-year-old “Stranger Things” star Caleb McLaughlin said, “Neat, classic...whatever goes with my vibe and I’m comfortable with.” And we’re here for it.
