A Beautiful Mind

WHETHER SHE’S BALANCING HER NEW SERIES, GROWN-ISH, WHILE SHE PREPS FOR HARVARD, ADVOCATING FOR PEOPLE OF COLOR AND GIRLS, OR EATING DINNER WITH HER FAMILY, YARA SHAHIDI SHINES

- Zeba Blay

A few months ago, Yara Shahidi was sitting in on a class at UCLA (for fun), taking notes during an African- American studies lecture about the Reconstruction era while live-tweeting a grown-ish episode in which Zoey Johnson, the character she plays on the black-ish spin-off, tries Adderall for the first time. This scenario captures the duality of her life and career at the moment: Yara and Zoey are growing up in distinct yet intertwined ways. Born in Minneapolis and raised in Los Angeles, Yara has been acting and modeling since she was 6 years old— she’s had roles in movies, such as Imagine That with Eddie Murphy, and on television shows, like ABC’s Scandal (in which she portrayed a young Olivia Pope). Her debut in the network’s black-ish, however, is what catapulted her into the public consciousness.

Yara is the polar opposite of Zoey, especially this newer, messier incarnation. On black-ish, the eldest daughter was radiantly confident. On grown-ish—which has already been renewed for a second season on Freeform—she’s awkward, complicated and sometimes unlikable. She struggles with classes, experiments with drugs, hooks up with boys. She’s gloriously messy. Contrast that with Yara, who’s at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City on this winter afternoon. She has just arrived from Paris, where she attended the Chanel Couture show as a Chanel brand ambassador. Looking every bit a star in the making, she admits she hasn’t done “99 percent” of the things her character has.