Tavi Gevinson
By age 12 Tavi Gevinson had already become a fashion icon with her blog, Style Rookie. In high school, she launched the online magazine Rookie, a cultural headquarters for teenage girls. And by 17 she had become an actress, appearing in the film "Enough Said," with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini.
Now, at 18, she is making her Broadway debut in the play "This Is Our Youth."
Was she afraid to be ambitious? "I was, at first, and I still am every day a little bit, because we don't live in a world that is necessarily encouraging for young women to be ambitious or to be confident or take what is yours or know what you deserve."
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan
Mason & Gevinson
Gevinson told correspondent Anthony Mason that her interest in theatre came about from how she was raised: "When I was two, my sister would put curlers in my hair and like, teach me Shirley Temple songs. It was just really part of our home."
But home and high school are behind her now. At New York's Cort Theatre in "This Is Our Youth," she's starring with Michael Cera and Kieran Culkin, as three friends grappling with growing up.
She says she wanted the part badly: "Well, obviously I think a lot about youth," she laughed, "and about this time in a person's life and what makes it so interesting and strange and bittersweet."
Montage
Born in Chicago and raised in Oak Park, Ill., Tavi Gevinson was just 11 when she began posting her avant garde thoughts about fashion online, on her blog Style Rookie.
When asked why she started her blog, Gevinson said, "Middle school is hard. I think by the end of 6th grade I'd been rejected by that group, I didn't fit into this group. So it was just kind of, like, 'Well, I can just have this hobby to myself. And by dressing this way I'm completely exempting myself from even being ranked in the comparisons in middle school."
Her self portraits, many shot in her backyard, caught the attention of top designers and fashion editors, and she was invited to Fashion Week in New York and in Paris.
Style Rookie
At school Gevinson was teased, but not deterred. She told Mason it was mostly the guys who were the problem: "Guys who couldn't understand why you weren't, like, trying to impress them. So they're like, 'I don't understand. I hate it.'"
"So how did you respond to them?" Mason asked.
"With really mean comebacks. I was really tough!" she laughed. "One time, this kid who had a locker next to mine was, like, 'Your dress looks like a curtain.' And it just seemed to make him so angry. So I was like, 'Just you wait, I'll wear a tutu tomorrow.' Like it was just a game. It was really fun!"
It Means "White Woods"
Gevinson also blogged about dressing as fictional characters, such as Blanche duBois from "A Streetcar Named Desire" (left, in 2008).
"I tried to do it more suiting to her personality than how she dresses," Gevinson wrote. "This I think I tried representing with the strong color of this dress my mom's friend passed down to me (a gorgeous pink, the pictures really don't do it justice). At the same time Blanche is extremely vulnerable, something we don't see until later in the play, and the delicate lace under the dress stands for that.
"The silhouette of the dress is very fitting to that of a typical Southern belle of the late '40s (when the play was written), which is what Blanche first appears as when she comes to Stella and Stanley's place. I cinched and draped it because, well, she is not your average Southern belle. Unless all Southern belles are insane and have mental issues, of course."
New York Fashion Week
Left: Tavi Gevinson attends the Alexander Wang Spring 2010 Fashion Show on September 12, 2009 in New York City.
Gevinson & Wintour
Blogger Tavi Gevinson poses with Vogue's Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour at the Barneys New York celebration of Fashion's Night Out, September 10, 2010 in New York City.
Gevinson & Yamamoto
Designer Yohji Yamamoto poses with blogger Tavi Gevinson backstage before the Y-3 Spring 2010 Fashion Show at the Park Avenue Armory, September 13, 2009 in New York City.
New York Fashion Week
Maria Sharapova and Tavi Gevinson attend the Rodarte Fall 2012 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, February 14, 2012 in New York City.
Meet The Press
Blogger Tavi Gevinson interviews singer Ciara backstage at the Y-3 Autumn/Winter 2010 Fashion Show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, February 14, 2010 in New York City.
New York Fashion Week
Tavi Gevinson at the Odilon Fall 2011 presentation during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, February 14, 2011 in New York City.
Self-Portrait
In 2011, Tavi Gevinson posted a self-portrait which she said exhibited some "Heathers"/"Twin Peaks" vibes.
"I started thinking too much about how I look in it and avoided posting it for a while," she wrote. "I wasn't insecure, quite the opposite - I didn't want to post this photo because I look good in it. And, as someone whose 'thing' for so long has been 'Challenge beauty standards! Screw convention! Look like a grandmother on ecstasy at Fashion Week!', that somehow felt hypocritical. …
"The general voice of my blog has been very much against the idea of those (or, in a way, any) standards for a long time, maybe not in so many words, but definitely in spirit. I once relished in an email I got saying I was an ugly boy because it felt like proof that I hadn't given in to societal pressure to be pretty that girls usually feel affected by. ...
"Before I got contacts in March, I just never really counted myself in the general pool of people who might be considered attractive. I wasn't insecure about how I looked, I just made peace with the fact that I wasn't, to me, an attractive person, and decided to milk my charming personality instead. The glasses were an easy way to isolate myself from even having to consider keeping up some kind of face. Then I slowly came to feel that, well, maybe I did want my face to be visible. Maybe I liked my face. Is that not okay?"
Steinfeld & Gevinson
Actress Hailee Steinfeld and fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland park on November 10, 2011 in Anaheim, Calif.
Gevinson & Fallon
Tavi Gevinson visits "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" at Rockefeller Center in New York City, September 11, 2012.
Power Women
Journalist/activist Gloria Steinem, writer Tavi Gevinson, and actress Allison Williams arrives at "MAKERS: Women Who Make America" New York Premiere at Alice Tully Hall on February 6, 2013 in New York City.
"Enough Said"
Tavi Gevinson and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in "Enough Said."
"Enough Said"
From left: Tavi Gevinson, director/screenwriter Nicole Holofcener, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tracey Fairway, Eve Hewson and Catherine Keener of "Enough Said" pose during the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, September 7, 2013 in Toronto, Canada.
Toronto International Film Festival
Actresses Toni Collette, Tracey Fairaway and Tavi Gevinson attend the Variety Studio At Holt Renfrew during the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2013 in Toronto, Canada.
Toronto International Film Festival
Actress Tavi Gevinson attends the Fox Searchlight TIFF party during the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival at Spice Route on September 7, 2013 in Toronto, Canada.
"This Is Our Youth"
Michael Cera and Tavi Gevinson in the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of Kenneth Lonergan's "This Is Our Youth."
"This Is Our Youth"
Actors Kieran Culkin, Tavi Gevinson and Michael Cera, of "This Is Our Youth," pose at the Cort Theatre on August 14, 2014 in New York City.
Cover Girl
Tavi Gevinson, as she appears on the cover of New York Magazine, August 2014.
Anthony Mason asked the young actress and cover girl, "Has there been a 'pinch me' moment for you?"
"Absolutely, my whole life," Gevinson replied. "But it's not a complex response, because it's not a complex thing. It's just wonderful."
For more info:
Follow Tavi Gevinson on Twitter (@tavitulle) and Instagram
"This Is Our Youth" (Official site) - Opens Sept. 11
Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago