Gallery Link: 2010: Set 012 (Entertainment Weekly)

Gallery Link: 2010: Set 013 (Flare Magazine)

Gallery Link: 2010: Set 011 (Eclipse Press Junket)

Gallery Link: 2010: Set 010 (Marie Claire)

The dress code at Campbell Hall, the private Episcopal school in North Hollywood, California, once attended by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and now by Dakota Fanning and her little sister, Elle, is strict: khaki skirt, shorts, or trousers, white collared shirt, navy sweater, closed-toed shoes. “You could actually wear this,” says the elder Fanning — wide-set, frank blue eyes; fair hair; milk-white skin; and the wispy limbs of a John Currin painting — flouncing her skirt, a cream-colored silk pouf, and in the process gaily jangles a wristful of bangles. We are sitting opposite each other in a quiet booth at the Sunset Tower Hotel, in Los Angeles. Her skirt might be passable, I think, but that little distressed white cotton tank with the bra peeking out could be grounds for detention. Ditto the 5-inch, brown Marni wedge sandals that were a present for her 16th birthday, in February, and that add significantly to her petite, not-quite-5-foot-4 frame.

And her costumes for last spring’s The Runaways would have probably gotten her expelled. The movie tells the story of the rise and fall of Joan Jett’s first band, an all-girl hard-rock ensemble (dubbed “glam-punk” by some) that emerged in the mid-’70s. As the 15-year-old lead singer and Jett sidekick Cherie Currie, Fanning played part naïf, part sexed-up jailbait, in a frost-white wig, fishnet stockings, and an S&M corset. All in a moment, Fanning went from being an adorable if talented “child star” to the full-fledged genuine article, and critics took notice. Reviewing The Runaways in The New York Times, A.O. Scott gushed: “Ms. Fanning, who has shown herself a remarkably disciplined and self-aware actress almost since toddlerhood, displays heartbreaking vulnerability as well as frightening poise.” The Denver Post called her performance “uncorked.” The message was unmistakable: She had popped.

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Gallery Link: 2010: Set 004 (Entertainment Weekly Sundance Portraits)

Gallery Link: 2010: Set 009 (Vanity Fair)

For the July issue of Vanity Fair, Norman Jean Roy photographed the spooky beauties of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse—five vampires (Dakota Fanning, Nikki Reed, Ashley Greene, Elizabeth Reaser, Bryce Dallas Howard) and one lone lady werewolf (Julia Jones). Nancy Jo Sales was on set, where, between takes, the girls mused on the gothic romance that has everyone palpitating.

Nikki Reed plays the disapproving Rosalie Cullen. Here’s her take on the story’s appeal: “Bella and Edward’s love is very taboo and forbidden,” says Reed, “and I think that kind of represents all youthful relationships, because that’s what all first loves feel like. … It’s sort of borderline, like, insane.”

Elizabeth Reaser, who plays vampire mom Esme, exclaims on the attractive young men of Twilight: “Oh, it gets so old, you have no idea,” says Reaser. “It has no effect on me. They’re all gorgeous and lovely boys. … You just want someone interesting and weird at a certain point. I have a massive crush on Larry David.”

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