Yara Shahidi: Young and Impactful in Fashion and Social Entrepreneurship

Being in your early 20s means that you are starting your first job or studying in college. However, Yara is not like most people.

An award-winning actor just recently graduated from Harvard — and the budding entrepreneur also works as a producer and owns her own production company. Plus, as a social activist, she uses her platform to advocate for a variety of issues like global education, civil and human rights.

The actor has been known to set high standards for herself, and through dedication and focus, she has been able to establish herself in the fashion industry through various ventures with major brands.

Her social entrepreneurship efforts are just an added bonus.

Yara has been using her platform to advocate for equity and in May 2023, she was invited to speak at the Cartier’s Women Initiative (CWI) awards event.

The main goal of the initiative’s social entrepreneurship program is to provide support for inspiring women in business.

Since it was founded back in 2006, the initiative has been supporting women pushing for environmental and social change through their business start-ups. They provide support in the form of networking opportunities to boost visibility and attract resources, mentorship and financial assistance. Throughout its existence, CWI has provided more than $6 million in funding to businesses geared a pushing for societal good.

“The intersection of fashion and philanthropy is art at its best. These cultural mediums have infinite possibilities to help influence and change our world,” she told Marie Claire. “Often before there’s policy and social shift, there are cultural shifts, so when fashion brands and people at the forefront of them pour resources into social and philanthropic change, it’s a butterfly effect—with a small investment from the fashion world comes potential for infinite good."

Yara has been able to make her mark in the world of fashion in different ways. She has worked on an Adidas collaboration, is a brand ambassador for Dior, and is the face of the Jean Paul Gaultier Divine feminine fragrance.

But her partnership with these brands goes deeper than just promoting their products.

In 2021, Yara partnered with Adidas in her five-piece collection. Designed to re-imagine and celebrate her Black and Iranian roots, the collection is made up of a pair of jackets and matching track pants and a pair of classic Superstar sneakers.

“This particular collection is not only an exploration of who I am — bringing together different aspects of my own heritage — but also an ode to a new generation of change makers who are continually reimagining their own identities, carving out space, and refusing to be silenced in the process,” Yara shared at the time.

The young actress is also among the long list of big names to have worked as the global ambassadors of Dior. In 2021, she was nominated to serve as the face of both the beauty and fashion departments of the luxury brand.

To publicize the brand's latest releases, the actress worked with the brand’s Creative and Image Director of Makeup Peter Phillips and Women’s Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri.

In 2023, the actress was picked to be the face of the new Jean Paul Gaultier Divine feminine fragrance.

“I think what made me so excited to join forces with the Gaultier family is that Divine is about womanhood being very wide, expansive and inclusive,” she shared with FQ. “I think it is a call to this really large and plural community, and I love for femininity to be something that we get to make our absolute own.”

She continued, “A way of saying: how can we use fashion as a tool to show up in the world as we want? To be working alongside a brand where that’s always been a core value, and to get to execute that so creatively is really a blessing.”

It is clear to see that Yara is ready and willing to conquer the world, even at her young age. Her passion and commitment to achieving positive change in the society is seemingly unmatched — especially through fashion.