Tavi Gevinson Takes the Stage

Eighteen-year-old Tavi Gevinson has accomplished more than many women twice her age: At 11, she launched Style Rookie, a cult blog, which turned her into one of the youngest style icons in recent memory and paved the way for countless imitators; three years later, she founded 
the widely read female-empowerment online publication Rookie; and in 2012, she was invited to give a TED Talk 
on youth and modern feminism. This month, the pint-size powerhouse—and she is, indeed, tiny in person—makes her Broadway debut in, ironically, This Is Our Youth, Kenneth Lonergan’s drama about overprivileged ne’er-do-well adolescents. “The play is, weirdly, like living out a fantasy,” Gevinson says. “Having a life where I do things like this W photo shoot has given me a deep affection for being bored and sitting around in someone’s basement.” 
She stars as Jessica, a malcontent fashion student—opposite Michael Cera and Kieran Culkin—a role that is far more glamorous than the “little boys and old ladies” Gevinson 
says she played in school productions of Les Misérables and Thoroughly Modern Millie when she was growing up in Oak Park, Illinois. “I made peace early on with the fact that I was just not going to be cast as an ingenue,” she remarks drily. Gevinson is planning to postpone college for a year but will keep up her duties at Rookie—like any overachiever, she is a multitasker. “Editing and writing are very solitary pursuits, so it’s nice to have acting,” she says. “So, yeah, I would love to do more. More of everything. All of it.”