New It Girl Alert! Elizabeth Olsen

One of the Sundance Film Festival’s breakout stars this year is newcomer Elizabeth Olsen. Displaying a penchant for overachieving straight out of the gate, she has not one but two films premiering in Park City this year; the single shot thriller, Silent House and the ensemble drama, Martha Macy May Marlene, of which she is the title character. Projects to follow include Peace, Love, and Misunderstanding with Jane Fonda and Red Light with Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver. Somehow, in all her spare time, she’s also a Tisch student at NYU.

One topic that’s impossible to ignore though is her last name. Yes, she’s little sister to two certain petite business moguls and fashion icons, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.  She too has mastered that enviable street cred/indie style, which clearly is a genetic trait in the Olsen family. (Why doesn’t that gene run in my family??)

All this begs the inevitable, if unfair, question…should we dislike her for her amazing clothes and hereditary good fortune?

Answer:  It’s pretty darn hard to! She’s really flexing her artistic and intellectual muscles by debuting as an indie darling at Sundance, not to mention actually taking the time to study theatre seriously before making her feature debut. Particularly when two siblings could have opened every door imaginable, it’s actually refreshing and speaks volumes that she chose what some might term the more elitist, intellectual career path. When interviewed by The Wrap, on the subject of  career help from her sisters, she says, “If I asked them they would have, but I wanted to do it without asking for the favor.”

Wow. Advantage: Elizabeth Olsen. Clearly, coolness runs in the family too.