America’s Got Talent winner Grace VanderWaal offered a glimpse at a shimmering ensemble she donned to celebrate her 21st birthday Jan. 15. The America’s Got Talent alum was shining bright as she celebrated her 21st birthday Jan. 15 in a glittery gown fit for the festive occasion.
In an Instagram carousel posted on her big day, the singer—who won the talent competition series in 2016 at just 12 years old—modeled a sheer beige minidress covered in sparkly sequins. Across several photos and videos, she struck several playful poses for the camera, alternately winking and blowing kisses.
While Grace is all grown up now, she recently reflected on coming of age in the spotlight following her AGT victory. “I honestly felt like it helped me as a person,” she told content creator David Carmi in a TikTok video shared in August 2024, “because it threw me into scrutiny and just kind of forced me to sink or swim.”
The “So Much More Than This” singer then offered some “corny” but “true” advice, urging others to “accept who you are”—though she also warned of deceptive influences as she shared another valuable lesson: “Don’t trust everyone.” While Grace has admitted her public upbringing brought its own ups and downs, she’s used her experiences as opportunities for personal growth.
“I feel like I keep learning about how to take care of myself better and my biggest thing recently is just acknowledging your triggers,” she told E! News in 2022. “Staying in your pajamas all day—that’s gonna make me depressed. Let’s get up, get dressed.”
And she hasn’t let negativity get in the way of her well-being.
“I feel like I’ve been doing this for so long that you get desensitized to hate online,” she went on. “I went through a ton of hate online when I was really young. I’m happy it happened though because it prepared me for this life.”
Curious how other child stars are doing now? Find out below. Jonathan Taylor Thomas
JTT rose to fame playing brainy and adorable middle child Randy Taylor on Home Improvement starting in 1991. His big-screen roles that decade included voicing young Simba in The Lion King (though that’s not him singing) and starring with Brad Renfro in 1995’s Tom and Huck and Devon Sawa in 1997’s Wild America.
He left Home Improvement in 1998 (Randy went to Costa Rica) to focus on school, but kept acting on his list of extracurriculars.
He had a recurring role on 8 Simple Rules in 2004 and in 2013 reunited with TV dad Tim Allen to direct (and appear in ) several episodes of Last Man Standing.
But though JTT backed away from the spotlight to live his life, which included graduating from Columbia in 2010, Thomas doesn’t need to be onscreen to cause a splash: On the rare occasions the paparazzi snap him, the sightings go viral.
Jonathan Lipnicki
Few 6-year-olds have made splashier movie debuts than Lipnicki, who went toe-to-toe with Tom Cruise in the charm department in Jerry Maguire and got almost as many memorable lines. He went on to roles in the Stuart Little films, Doctor Dolittle (voicing Baby Tiger), The Little Vampire and Little Mike, and he guest-starred on Dawson’s Creek, but took a break to have a normal high school experience.
He’s still in showbiz as an adult, starring in the 2023 Lifetime movie Secrets at the Museum. The L.A. native is also a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and in May 2021 he volunteered to provide additional security outside a mid-city synagogue amid a rise in anti-Semitic vandalism and harassment. In 2017, Lipnicki opened up on Instagram about the bullying he experienced in middle school, hoping that sharing his experience could lend some comfort to others.
He was “made fun of relentlessly” by some kids who then, down the road, must have forgotten their bad behavior and tried to friend him on Facebook. “I was told I was a has-been and would never book a job again,” he recalled. He started having nightly panic attacks, anticipating the next day’s humiliation. Yet he had survived, adding, “I am grateful for the amazing life I have and I hope I can pass on that it DOES get better.”
Mara Wilson
Wilson starred in Mrs. Doubtfire at 6 and Matilda at 9 before putting acting on the back burner.
The writer and activist released her memoir Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame in 2016 as well as appeared on Broad City and loaned her voice to the animated shows BoJack Horseman, Big Hero 6: The Series and Helluva Boss.
“Once, someone I’d considered a friend asked, with a big smile, ‘How does it feel to know you’ve peaked?'” Wilson recalled in a February 2021 New York Times op-Ed about the perils of early fame for girls. “I didn’t know how to answer, but now I would say that’s the wrong question. I haven’t peaked, because for me, The Narrative isn’t a story someone else is writing anymore. I can write it myself.”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Gordon-Levitt was a veteran actor by the time he starred as Tommy Solomon, a member of an alien fact-finding mission posing as an average human family, on 3rd Rock From the Sun. The show premiered when he was 14 in 1996, also the year he was seen as Demi Moore’s son in the thriller The Jury.
Soon, he was the nice guy with a crush in 1999’s 10 Things I Hate About You, a hustler in 2004’s Mysterious Skin and the determined teen sleuth trying to find out what happened to his missing ex-girlfriend in the 2005 noir drama Brick.
He could still pass for a teen well into his twenties, but once he started playing adults, his various highlights have included 500 Days of Summer, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Inception, 50/50, The Dark Knight Rises, Looper, Lincoln, Don Jon (which he also wrote and directed) and Snowden. Gordon-Levitt explored more real moments in history as a prosecutor in 2020’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 and he played Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick in the series Super Pumped. He quietly married Tasha McCauley in 2014 and they share two children.
Natalie Portman
Thanks to her preternaturally poised performance at the age of 12 in 1994’s The Professional, Portman was tagged with a certain gravitas at an early age—and she’s still living up to her reputation. Since her auspicious debut, she’s starred in huge blockbusters (Star Wars: Episodes I through III; the Thor franchise and Avengers: Endgame), indie favorites (Beautiful Girls, Garden State), comedies (Mars Attacks!, Your Highness), intense dramas (Closer, Brothers) and apocalyptic thrillers (V for Vendetta, Annihilation).
She won the Best Actress Oscar for her turn as a ballerina who’s losing her mind in 2010’s Black Swan earned another nomination for channeling newly widowed Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie. She made her feature directorial debut with 2015’s A Tale of Love and Darkness, adapted from Amos Oz’s autobiographical novel.
She married her Black Swan choreographer, Benjamin Millepied, in 2012 and they’re parents of son Aleph and daughter Amalia.
We’ve never been particularly fond of the Lexus RC, but that won’t stop us from mourning the death of yet another V-8. Lexus has confirmed that the regular RC and the eight-cylinder RC F will end production after this year. That means they won’t be retired immediately, rather 2025 marks the final model year for both cars.
Before it goes, the RC gets one minor visual change, as it adopts red brake calipers (changed from orange). That only applies to rear-drive RC F Sport models, though, as the other trims are unchanged.
Things are slightly more exciting for the proper RC F, which will be sold exclusively in Final Edition form for 2025. The last version of the RC F builds off last year’s Carbon Package model, so it features a carbon-fiber treatment for the front spoiler, rear diffuser, roof, and the active rear wing.
The RC F rides on a set of 19-inch BBS wheels, and there’s even a special engine-cover badge for its 5.0-liter V-8. As with the lesser RC, the F gets red brake calipers. The interior gets a new look too, with the leather and Ultrasuede finished in a special red and black job.
The last RC F we tested was the 2021 Fuji Speedway Edition, which we guided to 60 mph in 4.0 seconds flat. While certainly not slow, the $100,000 Lexus continues to fall by the wayside of competitors in the same price class. Still, we’ll lament the loss of yet another naturally aspirated V-8 on our roads.
For the final model year, the 2025 Lexus RC300, with its turbo four and rear-wheel drive, starts at $46,445. The all-wheel-drive version has a naturally aspirated V-6 and is priced at $49,135. Meanwhile, the RC350 has a more powerful version of the same V-6; it starts at $49,375 and $51,540 for rear- or all-wheel drive, respectively. The RC F Final Edition starts at $94,000 and features a 472-hp 5.0-liter V-8.
