Florence’s Hair: Shon Hyungsun Ju. Make-up: Alex Babsky. Manicure: Jenni Draper. Production: Fabio Mayor and Ella Knight at Mayor Productions.
FLORENCE PUGH
ACTOR, 26
“I don’t think that people, just because they have this JOB, that every aspect of their life should be WATCHED and WRITTEN about. We haven’t signed up for a reality TV show.”
QUALEASHA WOOD
ARTIST, 25
“I want to OPEN DOORS for young WOMEN everywhere, to PUSH the BOUNDA R IES of what ART is considered to be and who gets to be in art SPACES.”
OSCAR YI HOU
ARTIST AND WRITER, 23
“I’d just like to be remembered as someone who LOVED his FR IENDS, his FAMILY, the WOR LD.”
HOW do you navigate COMING OF AGE in a WOR LD that’s in CONSTANT CRISIS? The ACTORS, ARTISTS, MUSICIANS, MODELS, ATHLETES, WRITERS, and ACTIVISTS in this portfolio—all 30 YEARS OLD OR YOUNGER—are DOING just that. They are not only CHARTING a path FORWAR D but also making SPACE for others by bringing new IDEAS, PERSPECTIVES, and EXPERIENCES to the table with a GENEROSITY, HOPEFULNESS, and VISION that’s both INSPIR ING and INSPIR ED. To them, AGE represents much more than a NUMBER: it’s an OPPORTUNITY, where the goal isn’t to become an ICON but to R EDEFINE what it means to be ONE.
ASHA GRANT
OWNER OF THE SALT EATERS BOOKSHOP, 29
“ALICE COLTR ANE was a Black jazz musician who really REPRESENTS the sort of life that I would LIKE to live, where my WOR K and my personal VA LUES are aligned.”
TOMI ADEYEMI
WRITER AND STORYTELLER, 29
“The people I think of as ICONS weren’t icons just because of what they ACCOMPLISHED or added to HUMANITY but for the way they lived their LIVES.”
FLORENCE PUGH’s greatest gift as an ACTOR isn’t her ability to REVEAL the essential TRUTH in a CHAR ACTER. It’s that she comes by it HONESTLY.
Story by ANDREA CUTTLER
Florence Pugh knew it was going to be a thing. At Valentino’s couture show in Rome this past July, the 26-year-old British-born actor wore a Barbie-pink gown with layers of tulle and a completely sheer top. After she tried on the dress, Florence and designer Pierpaolo Piccioli decided to remove the lining, eliminating any confusion over the intentionality of the gown’s transparency. “I was comfortable with my small breasts,” she tells me while sipping a glass of rosé from a cosy hotel room in the English countryside. “And showing them like that—it aggravated [people] that I was comfortable.”
Florence received a deluge of Internet nastiness. “It was just alarming, how perturbed they were,” she says. “They were so angry that I was confident, and they wanted to let me know that they would never wank over me. Well, don’t.” Florence expanded on this sentiment on Instagram, excoriating her body-shaming trolls: “Why are you so scared of breasts? Small? Large? Left? Right? Only one? Maybe none? What. Is. So. Terrifying”. The post has now been Liked more than 2.5 million times.
Fans have, she has built a career playing women who refuse to be silenced. Over the past seven years, she’s acted in almost two dozen projects, including her breakout performances in a pair of 2019 films, Ari Aster’s indie horror hit and Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of the beloved classic , the latter of which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
