by Nathaniel R
Here's some sweet news for Pride Month, y'all, since it's not every day that a young rising star comes out of the closet. 19 year-old Amandla Stenberg, who first came to fame playing little Rue in The Hunger Games (2012), has just declared that she's gay in Wonderland magazine and on her own Instagram.
While she's not quite a household name, she is inarguably on the rise so this is a wonderful progressive move. Stenberg is headlining this summer's sci-fi young-people-with-powers flick The Darkest Minds (co-starring Beach Rats hottie Harris Dickinson). What's more she'd already delivered her first film-carrying hit with Everything Everything (reviewed). (Everything Everything was the fourth biggest success last year among films directed by women, just after the Oscar nominated Lady Bird)...
Quite a few 30something white male actors came out of the closet in the past decade, finally decimating that annoying myth that your career would end if you came out. Among the younger generation, though, it's the women of color who are leading the charge of queer visibility. We now have three rising actresses who've come out quite recently. The others are Kiersey Clemons (who broke through with Dope and is co-starring in the sleeper hit Heart Beats Loud in theaters right this moment) and Sasha Lane (American Honey, The Miseducation of Cameron Post).
Here's the trailer to Sternberg's new film Darkest Minds...