An Icon Rising! Yara Shahidi Is Pretty Powerful On The Cover Of Porter Magazine

YARA SHAHIDI is a beautiful, talented actress. She is also an activist, a history lover and an outspoken supporter of young people who wants to shape the future. The landscape-changing former Editor of Teen Vogue, ELAINE WELTEROTH, talks to her about friendship, fashion and setting intentions

I don’t remember my 18th birthday. But I am pretty certain voting was the last thing on my mind. Actress-turned-activist Yara Shahidi, on the other hand, is busy planning an earnest foray into adulthood with a voter registration party held at the Underground Museum, a buzzy cultural hub in Los Angeles. And that isn’t all that’s on this rising star’s busy social calendar. It is 10am on the eve of her 18th birthday and Shahidi is on an important phone call, pacing back and forth inside the New York’s Baccarat Hotel restaurant. “Sorry, just wrapping up with a producer,” she whispers, as she embraces me with a warm hug. “I’m doing [The Late Show with Stephen] Colbert tonight.” Yesterday, the icon-in-training was on stage at the Apollo Theater making history as the youngest person to be interviewed by Oprah on her daytime series SuperSoul Sunday, an honor typically reserved for world leaders and spiritual gurus, such as Joe Biden, Sheryl Sandberg and Deepak Chopra.

Elaine Welteroth: How do you feel in your last moments of 17? You are almost an adult. Grown-ish…

Yara Shahidi: It’s kinda scary. 17 was more than good to me; it’s the perfect age because you get the full perks of being a teenager without being an adult. But the one thing that I am looking forward to is feeling more empowered to contribute. My friends have always said that if I got a fake ID, it would be to vote early.