HILARY DUFF, 16
Claim to fame Hugely successful Lizzie McGuire TV series and movie spin-off. After a bitter salary dispute with Disney Duff walked away from the lucrative franchise.
What next? The claws were out when Duff accused Lohan of making a play for her pop star boyfriend Aaron Carter. Though Lohan denied it, Duff persisted in bitching about her before the pair finally made up. Duff is still only 16 and her career is firmly ensconced in “for the kids” territory.
EVAN RACHEL WOOD, 16
Claim to fame A stunning turn in last year’s searing teen drama Thirteen.
What next? Wood made her name on the US TV series Once and Again, but swiftly moved on to a classy film career. She was excellent as Cate Blanchett’s daughter in Ron Howard’s The Missing and appears in three grown-up films shooting this year opposite the likes of James Woods, Edward Norton, Joan Allen and Kevin Costner.
AMANDA BYNES, 18
Claim to fame: The Amanda Show, her own long-running Nickelodeon TV series.
What next? Bynes is huge in the US but has yet to prove herself in film. She was good in What a Girl Wants, playing an American teenager who discovers that the dad she’s never known is an English toff (Colin Firth), and will be seen next in Lovewrecked as — yep — an American teenager marooned on a desert island with her rock’n’roll idol.
EMMY ROSSUM, 17
Claim to fame Not quite dwarfed by the special effects in the current blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow.
What next? Rossum parlayed a regular role in the US ?ber-soap As The World Turns into supporting roles in Mystic River, An American Rhapsody and as the young Ms Hepburn in TV’s lamentable The Audrey Hepburn Story. Her next big project is playing Christine in Joel Schumacher’s forthcoming film of The Phantom of the Opera.
JENA MALONE, 19
Claim to fame Played a 12-year-old rape victim in US cable TV’s much-lauded film Bastard out of Carolina.
What next? Widely acknowledged as the best actress of her age, she turns down big offers for more interesting films such as Donnie Darko and Cold Mountain. She’ll succumb to the teen genre, albeit a hilariously warped example, in the forthcoming Saved! opposite Macaulay Culkin and Mandy Moore (a just-graduated teen queen, now 20).
MARY-KATE AND ASHLEY OLSEN, 18 on June 13
Claim to fame Shared one role on the long-running US sitcom Full House from the age of nine months to nine years.
What next? America’s richest teen queens — they are worth a reported $150 million each — have their own company, Dualstar, which flogs their range of make-up, toiletries and clothing. The twins forged a successful if uncool film career via a series of straight-to-video flicks, but their recent big-screen debut, New York Minute, was a flop.
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY, 19
Claim to fame Bend It Like Beckham, which was an unexpected hit in the US as well as in England.
What next? Knightley hit the major league with Pirates of the Caribbean. Pirates 2 is on the way, but she hasn’t turned her back on the UK. She popped up in Love Actually and, if the tax situation can be resolved, will be seen in the Tom Stoppard-scripted Tulip Fever. She’s in this summer’s King Arthur, and will star in The Jacket with Adrien Brody.
Teenage drama queens
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