- 2 hours ago
If you're like us, you've grown to know and love teen supernova, Yara Shahidi through her standout role as Zoey Johnson on hit TV show, Black-ish, a role that's swiftly catapulted her to stardom. Not only has Yara already locked in the second season of her spinoff show, Grown-ish but she's also expanding her resume to include directing her first film and becoming a civic engagement advocate. Way wise beyond her 17 years, Yara has emerged a true and committed agent of change, setting a powerful example for her peers and the rest of us, too.
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00:01Welcome to Unstyled. I'm your host, Christine Barbrick, co-founder and global editor-in-chief
00:06of Refinery29. Each week, I invite a notable person to come in and talk with us as we explore
00:13the funny, inspiring, sometimes heartbreaking tales of life, work, and love, as told through
00:19the things that we wear. Hi, everyone, and welcome to a very special bonus episode of Unstyled.
00:30Season 3 won't debut until this coming fall. However, we hope this will be one of a handful
00:35of extra episodes leading up until then. So thanks for tuning in, and let's get on with the show.
00:44At just 17, Yara Shahidi has managed to cross more things off her bucket list than most of us probably
00:50will in a lifetime. She's charmed us on the hit television show Black-ish, interviewed then-Democratic
00:57presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, was named a 30 under 30 by Forbes, and most recently secured
01:03her own spinoff, Grown-ish, a refreshingly original sitcom that tackles real-life, new-to-college
01:09issues like how to handle an RU Up text, plus lighter, teachable moments like navigating adult
01:15deadlines and maintaining your hair without the hands of your lifelong stylist. Think Fleabag
01:20for Generation Z. But she isn't stopping there. While she's on the edge of voting age,
01:27she turns 18 this month. Yara's voice reaches far and wide. With millions of followers tuning
01:32in to her every call to action, she's become a role model for an age group on a constant
01:37quest for change. And offline, she's joined the 18 by 18 initiative, a civic engagement platform
01:43designed to get new young voters out to the polls, especially now with a midterm year upon us.
01:50But before she leaves her mark on Hollywood and Washington, D.C., more on that later,
01:55she's off to Harvard to double major in interdisciplinary sociology and African-American studies.
02:01Geez, feel old yet? So let's get started.
02:09Good morning, Yara.
02:11Good morning.
02:12Thank you so much for being a guest on Unstyled today.
02:14Of course.
02:15Our super duper bonus episode.
02:17Yeah. So you've kind of grown up alongside your character, Zoe.
02:22Definitely.
02:23On Black-ish.
02:24But now that she's headed off to college and your new show, Grown-ish, you're going to have
02:29even more in common because you're heading off to college too.
02:33That's being worked out my personal college schedule. But yeah, life imitates art, imitates
02:39life. I remember I was finishing my own applications when Kenya Barris, the creator of Black-ish, called
02:46with the idea of what if Zoe goes to college.
02:49Why do you think he wanted to do it? Was it because of the history of college campuses being
02:54such an important place for protest, discussion, you know, reactions?
02:59I mean, multiple reasons. First and foremost, he has children of his own and his oldest is
03:07headed off to college.
03:09Didn't you go to school together?
03:10Mm-hmm. I went to school with Kaylee Barris. And so she's headed off to college. I was already
03:16kind of talking about college and applying myself. And so what he's always loved is making sure that
03:23Black-ish, as exaggerated as it can be for the sake of comedy, is based in reality.
03:28And so the one thing that he wanted to make sure was that my character was still allowed
03:34to grow. And he didn't know if it was as fully possible if we didn't discuss this side of
03:39her adventure, especially when you have a character that has been so independent from
03:44day one. Every other line, she's like, well, when I'm out of here. And so it was more so just
03:51such an appropriate way to continue the journey. And also, again, like you said, college campuses
03:56are highly politicized. And so much happens in terms of personal development, but also
04:01the development of one's opinion and larger public self.
04:05It does sound like a cliche, but it is such a moment of awakening because you're really
04:10distanced from this world that has been your life for the last 18 years. And you really are
04:17forced to create this new identity.
04:20I know it may have been a shock for some people coming from Black-ish in which she was possibly
04:26the most confident person other than Dre on the show. But moving into this new college
04:32environment, starting from the first moment you see Zoe on screen, she's unsure of herself
04:38because I think it was expected that she would go in with the same kind of energy as she had
04:44in Black-ish. But it's just not real.
04:45I mean, even watching my friends who are in college now, who have always been independent
04:51and self-assured, there's a certain moment that everyone goes through of realizing that
04:56this is a whole new environment that they have to maneuver and that you do not have the same
05:03support system that you did before in that you pretty much single-handedly have to deal
05:08with the consequences of your actions without having the family that protects you.
05:12There's also a really interesting relationship between you and your dad on the show. And it's
05:17like, I don't know, I felt like it was really symbolic of this sort of passing of the torch
05:21of like, men to young women, and really like believing that my daughter is going to change
05:28the world.
05:29Oh, yeah. I mean, the one thing about Zoe and Dre is I've always said that they are the
05:34same person. Like, quite honestly, I feel like-
05:36See, that's really, really, really interesting, especially right now with just the different
05:40narratives that are being exchanged between men and young women.
05:44Yeah. I've always personally felt that some of the times in which you see them butting
05:49heads is because they have the same type of energy. Fire and fire just, it gets more fire.
05:54Even though they have these similarities which have been expressed throughout the seasons.
05:59I mean, Dre refers to her as the favorite child. And so there have been-
06:04Which is terrible, by the way.
06:06I know. But there have been those moments throughout the seasons. There is a sort of
06:09passing of the baton and it's symbolic and also quite literal. Even with Kenya giving me
06:15the platform of this show, it's a very literal transition of being confident in a 17-year-old
06:22to carry a show. And being confident in a group of young people, whether you think about
06:28how young our writer's room is and everything from the fact that we have a female DP. There's
06:34a passing of the torch in so many ways from Black-ish to Grown-ish.
06:39That's really exciting.
06:39Yeah. In allowing new voices and new narratives because the one thing that we've never shied
06:46away from is that Black-ish is also Dre's narrative. We do tell everyone's story on
06:51the show, but it's through his point of view. And so it's different if Zoe were to have
06:57gone to college on Black-ish because it would have been through his point of view and through
07:01his form of self-realization versus then seeing this entire other person discovering her own
07:08journey. And there's more of a semblance of ownership of her story with Grown-ish and with
07:16her having this other platform.
07:18What I love so much about Grown-ish is that you're able to weave in a lot of really heavy
07:23topics, a lot of heavy realities that young people are facing and dealing with today, whether
07:29it's Adderall or sexting or things like that.
07:33Grown-ish definitely had a tonal shift. And so one of the most obvious differences is that
07:39depending on what time you turn on Grown-ish, it doesn't always feel like a comedy. There
07:42are long periods of time in which it isn't about making sure we hit that punchline joke
07:48and it isn't about making sure that we follow the rule of three of set up, set up, set up,
07:52hit the joke kind of situation because what was most important to us was addressing the
08:00reality of the situation. And so whether it is those large storylines of Zoe and her messing
08:08with Adderall or if it's the ones that we kind of weave in, whether it's through Nomi's character
08:13and discussing biphobia and the LGBTQ community and then communities at large, or even the episode
08:20that we did in which we took a moment to kind of break down the NCAA and how these student
08:25athletes are being used in so many cases. And that's one of Grown-ish's strengths.
08:31So ultimately, getting back to the question, the tone has shifted and so there aren't always
08:36moments of levity. And the one major distinction is that Zoe is not Yara. And these characters
08:42are not the same as the actors playing them. We have different prejudices. They're not perfect.
08:47They still have so many biases that we discuss. And even in talking about their form of activism,
08:53even the fifth episode in which there's just a conversation between Aaron and Nomi,
08:58you realize that our activism isn't always intersectional. And it was intentional because
09:03we didn't want that level of perfection. We wanted to see these characters working through and growing
09:08through this stuff themselves and not starting with this perfect base of a human.
09:12And it also allows for two different conversations to happen on and off the show with what I'm doing
09:17with 18 by 18 and what we're doing, what everyone's doing outside of the show with their personal
09:21platforms versus what's happening on the show, which I feel like really optimizes the space that we use
09:27in that we're able to discuss one thing on Wednesday nights and then personally say,
09:32but I'm concerned about voting. Zoe may not be. Zoe may be concerned with X, Y, and Z,
09:36which definitely many people relate to. But Yara is concerned with these other topics. And so
09:41there are moments in which Yara and Zoe collide, but so many moments in which we stay in separate
09:46places. I feel like you're Zoe's mentor. I feel like Yara is Zoe's mentor. She's kind of like the
09:52sitting on her shoulder. The super id. Yeah, exactly. The super id. I don't know, Zoe,
09:57as well as you do, but I'd like to think that she's going to be voting. Oh, definitely. I'd like
10:01to
10:02think so, too. But that's the other journey you see her go through. She, on Black-ish, has been
10:08fairly apolitical in how she weaves in and out of what the Johnsons talk about. Now, she always has
10:13an opinion. That has never failed us. But it usually stems from a more ideology-based kind of
10:20driven belief in that she talks about wanting to come from a place of love or wanting to care about
10:26her friends. And it's less about policy. It's less about this is what's happening in the news.
10:31And more so about these larger beliefs that she holds. And so college, in many ways,
10:37almost forces you to become political whether you like it or not.
10:45Let's talk about 18 by 18.
10:47Yeah, so 18 by 18 in the short term is about midterms. It is about making sure that there
10:53is youth engagement in midterms. But the way we plan on achieving that is not by telling people
10:59how to vote, but giving my generation the resources needed to make those decisions. And so those
11:05resources come in many a form, whether it's, this is how you register to vote. This is how you figure
11:10out where your polling place is. If you need to vote early, this is how you vote early. And having
11:15those conversations. But then having the bigger conversations about, there's a lot of policy we're
11:19about to discuss. And the way we've kind of been fine-tuned is to focus on these larger elections.
11:24Even with the presidential election 2016, it was miraculous we got as many great local people as
11:32we did on the state level when the presidential election took up the entirety of the news cycle.
11:39And so now that we're headed into midterms, we don't usually pay attention to our senators and
11:45congressmen. And it's a lot of new information being introduced to us. So I found it important to
11:51make sure that we have some sort of semblance of connection between what we care about, who we
11:56care about, and how these policies affect us. So it may not affect me, but it may affect St. Cloud,
12:00Minnesota. And it may not affect my family, or maybe it does, and I just don't know it. And finding
12:08ways in which we can get that information to the forefront of our generation.
12:14There was a study, I remember looking at the results of the study before, it was during the
12:19Democratic National Convention. The number one reason why people didn't vote was because it
12:25was too confusing. A lot of times, you know, we kind of imagine voting in our own personal
12:30situations. I live in New York City, it's pretty easy for me to get to, you know, a polling station
12:34to vote. But for a lot of people that live, don't live in a big city, it can be more
12:38complicated.
12:39So I think that finding ways that we can be more supportive and more educational in a very sort of
12:45basic way, just creating an environment where people don't need to feel ashamed if they don't
12:50know where they have to go to vote.
12:52Right, definitely. I mean, even the one conversation that is often ignored is that so many people have
13:00nine-to-fives or hourly jobs that don't even give them the opportunity to go vote. The amount of people
13:05that still have to work on voting day and don't have the opportunity to, the way voting is set up,
13:12it seems like an upper middle class hobby, if anything else, because we don't always give
13:16everyone the space, the time, the funds, the resources to make sure that you have the job
13:22stability to go vote and make sure you have a job when you come back.
13:25An upper middle class hobby. That's really true.
13:35I just want to shift gears for a second. You grew up in Minneapolis?
13:38Uh, no, actually. Uh, I moved to LA when I was four.
13:44Okay.
13:44And it was actually for my papa's work. He's a, my papa, it means dad in Farsi. He's a
13:50cinematographer, director, DP, and my mama is a commercial actress, um, and business woman.
13:57And so.
13:58We're going to talk about your mom in a second.
13:59Yay.
14:00So you don't really have a strong, you can't really maybe draw that strong of a comparison
14:05between the Midwest and Los Angeles. Um, I, I mean, Minnesota will always be my home. My
14:10grandparents are there and, uh, I would, I would, I'd go back like two to three times
14:15a year before Blackish started for the state fair and for the corn festival and for all
14:21of it.
14:21What is the corn festival?
14:23Okay.
14:23It's pretty great.
14:24It's a festival of corn. It takes place in a cornfield. Um, and imagine a sandbox that
14:31is ginormous, but filled with dried corn kernels. Like you'd like dive in, you can
14:35dive into it like an Instagram moment. It totally. And I realized now that I'm thinking
14:39back on it, I was much smaller the last time I went. So I'm only imagining the sandbox of
14:44corn kernels is not as big as I imagined it to be. Um, I'm just realizing this now.
14:50Is it like multicolored kernels?
14:51No, just one color. Cause that's all you need. Just the classic corn yellow, but there's
14:57kettle corn and grilled corn and popcorn.
15:00That sounds pretty awesome.
15:01It's great.
15:01Yeah. Maybe you should, maybe you should bring that to Los Angeles in some way.
15:05Oh my goodness. Would love to. We could do that with kale.
15:18So I met you really briefly at an event that we hold called 29 Rooms and I met you really
15:23quickly and I felt like a real dork because I went up to you and I introduced myself and
15:28told you how inspired I am by observing your relationship with your mom on your Instagram.
15:33Has your mom been a really strong role model in your life?
15:36Definitely. Um, ever since I was little, I don't think I realized until maybe middle school
15:42or high school that not everybody had the same kind of relationship with their parents
15:48and that there was a whole lot that had been normalized to me at such a young age that I
15:52realized was non-normal to other people. Whether it was like, I have a mama with her master's
15:59in education and she speaks fluent Spanish and there's all of these other amazing things
16:05and is an entrepreneur. I just thought like, of course I can achieve this because I have
16:1010 aunties who have done it. I've had a Bubba who switched from physics to communications
16:14and is a photographer and has found success in being a creative. Like, of course I could
16:19take a passion and make it work. I have a cousin, um, who went to the space station. She came
16:26to my second grade classroom and talked to my classmates and showed a, she had a slideshow.
16:30Um, and so all my second grade classmates remember me with, as the girl who knew an astronaut.
16:35Wow.
16:35So it wasn't really until I hit that, that school age of being, um, places where it's like, oh,
16:45not everybody's always sure of themselves or, but more than that, there are constant barriers
16:52between what we want to do and how we achieve it. And it took me a moment to realize that.
16:59And I think
17:00in realizing that that's, what's made me as, um, passionate as I am about just the work that I do
17:06because I know the impact of living with those role models. I know the impact it's had on my idea
17:13of possibility. And so it is important whether I serve as a representation or the work I do can
17:18expand representation in any sort of way. Um, it's really about opening opportunities to as many
17:25people as possible because it's, it allows for just a more colorful existence in society.
17:33I know that you just signed on as an ambassador for Aerie, right?
17:37Yes.
17:37And it's an Aerie mentor, right?
17:38Role model.
17:39Yeah. Role model. And, um, I think this is a nice segue talking about that, but, you know,
17:44for young women who don't really have that access to that kind of image, um, of success,
17:50whatever that may be, how do you advise women you interact with that you feel,
17:54you know, need that, need that connection?
17:57I mean, I guess I would have to say the image always exists. It's about doing our research
18:02and finding it. And if for some weird reason it doesn't exist, creating a space in which it can.
18:09And so even starting from my, uh, my personal obsession with James Baldwin, he's a role model
18:18of mine. And that came from reading a short story in ninth grade and then just wanting to do more
18:24research as to who he is. Or, um, even the part of the reason I chose to go to Harvard
18:29is because
18:30the professors there are so prolific in their field and have expanded new ways of studying and have
18:37really revolutionized African and African-American history and how we learn it. And so, um,
18:43while I think the importance of, um, celebrity or media representation is integral in not only how we
18:52view ourselves, but how society views us, there's also an underappreciated layer of, um, appreciating
18:59the daily heroes of Congress people and professors and authors and people that you may not see on your
19:08TV every day, but have made, I can promise you a tangible impact on your life, whether you know
19:14it or not. And so a lot of it has been like, I didn't watch much TV growing up and
19:19the TV that I
19:20watched was, um, Crash Box on HBO, which was, uh, that show about math and, um, Time Warp Trio,
19:28which was about three kids traveling through history. And that was a cartoon.
19:31And that was intentional, like not watching a ton of TV.
19:33Oh yeah. I watched like an hour on Saturday, but it was, uh, TV was off Monday through Friday
19:38and, uh, which really forced us to look outside in the world and being interested in history.
19:44I was constantly learning about people like King Jenga, who was a female and she led her empire
19:49to success. And she had to take on the role that was theoretically assigned to males and even take on
19:56a masculine term in order to be taken seriously. But looking at people that span back
20:02before common era, there are so many examples of women, of people of color, of, um, the LGBTQ
20:11community, even of immigrants really pushing those barriers. And so I, I always say turn to history
20:18because, um, as cyclical as history is, there are always those inspiring outliers. And I find it
20:26super integral to know where we come from and who we come from.
20:30And also looking at those people, you refer to them as outliers, but the ones that intentionally
20:36pushed against the conventions that were sort of imposed upon them when it wasn't popular,
20:42when it wasn't safe. And I think that, you know, finding the courage to do that. And I think this
20:48is one of those times that we're living in right now, where I think a lot of people are being,
20:51you know, sort of asked to step up and be an example of just the truth.
20:58So even with the campaign, even with something as simple as no retouching in such a large campaign,
21:06it's, it's one of those situations in which you realize how normalized it's been to airbrush
21:12our quote unquote flaws and how it's created a society in which it's, it's not okay to have
21:20stretch marks or to have bumps or to have X, Y, and Z, whatever it may be. And so to
21:25even be a part of
21:26a campaign that has committed to saying like, no, this is what we, we really look like. And
21:32that's more than, and it's beautiful and it's beautiful. There is no one classification for
21:37beauty or acceptability or anything like that. No, I think it's incredibly brave and setting that
21:42kind of example in an industry that's so competitive right now. And I think those are the companies that
21:46will thrive in the longterm.
21:48Because it's about undefining things is I guess how I like to phrase it. A lot of times we live
21:54in a day and age of redefining. And while I thoroughly appreciate it, the definition of
22:00definition is to specify. And when you specify somebody is always left out. And so what these
22:06campaigns are doing and what these companies are doing is undefining and breaking down the barriers
22:11that say, this is what's in, this is what beauty is. And rather than saying we are redefining beauty,
22:16we are just making it such a large, vast concept that everyone can fit under it.
22:22You also made a really funny comment about your theory about fashion. It was like fashion was
22:29okay with you as long as you were able to do the robot.
22:32Yeah. The robot test.
22:33The robot test. Yeah. As long as you're able to really do a good robot, then it's, you know,
22:38it's, it's a consideration.
22:40Yes.
22:42Who taught you the robot?
22:44My brother.
22:45Okay.
22:45I have two brothers. And so it was the, the currently a 14 year old brother who taught
22:50me the robot. Um, cause he's always been a great dancer, but the robot test came about
22:55because I realized that a lot of fashion for me is being able to be comfortable because you have
23:01more ownership of yourself when you're comfortable. Um, versus constantly being hyper aware of how the
23:08clothes fit on you. Half of my wardrobe are political t-shirts and jeans. So many times we
23:13step into places in which you're having to dress for other people and how other people see you. If
23:20you, if you want to be a business woman, you have to wear this. If you want to be viewed
23:24as this,
23:25then you have to wear this. And there's a correlation between what you wear and how people
23:29perceive you. And I, I am hoping, and what I'm seeing is that is slowly disintegrating
23:34because, um, we live in such an unorthodox generation, but in a time in which everything's
23:40being revolutionized and restructured so that the idea of what a business woman is, is not,
23:45um, created by outward appearances, but by looking like a man, right? That's the only image of power.
23:52Oh, we, we have to talk about one more thing. Yes. Refinery 29 launched a short film series
23:56called Shatterbox last year. I'm very familiar. Yeah. And, um, we launched with, you know, first time
24:02directors like Kristen Stewart and Chloe Sevigny and Gabourey Sidibe. And I am just so grateful to
24:08you for coming on board and being one of our directors for season two. I am so happy to be
24:13a
24:13director. It's been so exciting. Oh, good. And is this, this is your first time directing,
24:18directing a film, correct? Yes. I directed a spec spot a while ago, but this is my first film that
24:24I
24:24also conceptualized. So what can you tell us about it? Um, well, it's called X and originally it was
24:30just the, um, the, the letter that we put in until we found a name and it ended up becoming
24:36the name
24:36because there's this idea that X being a variable, we wanted to keep it open so that everyone can relate
24:42to X and the larger concept that everyone is X. And so it is the story of a young person
24:50as they travel
24:51through Los Angeles and really about how the environment that they're in affects them.
24:57On the most basic level, the story that we're trying to express is about what it's like to
25:02maneuver through space that you don't own. Is it science fiction-y? Um, science fiction-y in one
25:09aspect in that the character does morph, but mainly based in reality and based in Melrose and Fairfax.
25:15And so even though it is, um, there are many things that make it LA specific, the overarching story
25:20is our aim is to be as universal as possible. You are a Shahidi. I want you to be my
25:26mentor.
25:29I'm still figuring my life out. So I don't know how much help I could be.
25:32Well, you and your mom together. Thank you so much for being a guest on Unstyled today. It's
25:37been such a pleasure and I've learned so much and I could just talk to you for days and days.
25:41Thank you for having me. This has been fun.
25:48I hope you're inspired after hearing Yara's story. For even more Unstyled extras, check out
25:54Refinery29 or my Instagram at Christine Barbrek. You can also join the conversation using the hashtag
26:01Unstyled across your social media. And of course, we'd be super grateful if you'd please subscribe to
26:06Unstyled on Apple Podcasts and rate us while you're there. You can head to Refinery29.com to
26:12find this episode and more and make sure to sign up for our exclusive Unstyled newsletter delivered
26:17straight to your inbox every week. Our show today was executive produced by Sarah Bernard,
26:23associate produced by Rebecca Easley. Our theme music today is by the artist Koff and we recorded
26:28Unstyled with Paul Ruist at Argo Studios. I hope you enjoyed this bonus episode of Unstyled
26:34Unstyled just as much as we've enjoyed making it for you. And we'll see you back here for more extra
26:39episodes soon.