A big part of the fun of editing Vanity Fair is that, through our reporting and our events, I have the opportunity to meet actors I’ve long admired on-screen. This January, I met Selma Blair. As Julie Miller writes in her profile, Selma was a fashion muse before celebrity stylists were a thing; her innate style sense and strength of personality made her a natural fit for designers, from Karl Lagerfeld to Stella McCartney. Last year, Selma was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, after five years or so of enduring mysterious symptoms that she could neither explain nor get anyone to take seriously, including, for quite some time, herself. She is a working single parent who is now also a powerful voice for people coping with the practical challenges brought about by physical disabilities. And she is just as worthy of the label “fashion muse” as she was when her career was beginning, two decades ago. That’s why we wanted to feature her in our spring Style Issue, with iconic black-and-white portraits shot by Cass Bird. Selma speaks eloquently of the transformative power of fashion, the way it affirms and expresses one’s identity, and she has taken her diagnosis as a chance to speak up for people who might feel unseen or underserved by the fashion industry, as well as the world at large. She has become more ambitious both in her advocacy and her acting, all while remaining her sharp, witty, adventurous self. My admiration for her only grows.

As it does for Miley Cyrus, our cover star. At 26, she’s over-indexed on accomplishments. (I write this letter the morning after she shared the stage with Dolly Parton at the Grammys and acquitted herself beautifully on a duet of “Jolene,” which makes her pretty much a goddess in my book.) But she’s also grown out of her child stardom into some very adult circumstances, which run the gamut from catastrophic to celebratory: the loss of the Malibu home she and Liam Hemsworth shared, in the Woolsey fire last autumn, followed by her marriage to Hemsworth in December. Those two events are related, she tells Zach Baron, in a profile that ranges from her new album-in-progress to her sexuality to, yes, that controversial Vanity Fair photograph 11 years ago. The heartbreak over their home became a sort of glue between them. She doesn’t mention a phoenix rising from the ashes, but she doesn’t have to: Ryan McGinley captures that spirit in his photographs of her, a woman in her element, whatever that element may be. Her style is as versatile as her talent; she talks with Zach in vintage Versace, bares her heart in Saint Laurent, and wades into warm Miami waters in Chanel.

Then there’s Zazie Beetz, whom you may know from her starring roles in FX’s Atlanta or Deadpool 2, but who wears lots of hats these days, both on-screen (with upcoming roles in X-Force and Joker) and in our shoot (also by Cass Bird, this time in dreamy color). Riding the subways of New York City, Zazie commutes effortlessly between chic and sweet. She’s got a huge year ahead, along with all the rising stars in this issue, but in our eyes they’re already tops.

— North West’s “boyfriend” and the logical endpoint of reality as we know it

— Is Trump the only person in America with decent work-life balance?

— Could Kamala Harris crush Joe Biden in a 2020 cage match?

— New-music alert: folk for the 21st century, and a refresh of “Poker Face”-era pop

— From 1999 to 2019: how Oscar fashion has changed over 20 years

Looking for more? Sign up for our daily newsletter and never miss a story.