From Disney Channel star to fashion icon! China Anne McClain has been killing the style scene since stepping foot into Hollywood.
“I always knew that I didn’t want a typical job or life,” the actress told Under the Radar in October 2020 about her career. “I don’t know why I always knew that, but I knew it from a very young age. The fact that God has actually given my family success in this, I feel very blessed. There are a lot of people out there, there are girls out there that are more talented than me, that work harder than me and, you know, they’re still sitting at home trying to figure out how to get here. So, I know that it’s one in a million and I feel really, really blessed. I wouldn’t want to live any other way.”
The Georgia native is most known for her two major Disney roles, Chyna Parks in A.N.T. Farm and Uma in the Descendants movies. Aside from that, she’s also appeared in The CW series Black Lightning, which came to an end in May 2021. Over the years, China has also made headlines with her stylish red carpet looks, especially when debuting her short haircut at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con and never looked back.
“It really did change [my life]. It gave me this feeling of freedom that I hadn’t felt previously. The only feeling I felt that compares to that type of freedom is finding God and building a relationship with him,” China told Teen Vogue in February 2021. “I never would’ve cut it when I was younger for a few different reasons. It was a security blanket to me. I was a Black girl with long hair, it was down my back and I always had people commenting on it like, ‘Is all that your hair? It’s so pretty?’ but at some point, I realized that I was hiding behind it for that reason.”
As she grew up, China realized that because she would spend so much time on her hair, she felt like “it was holding me back.” So, when she cut it off, the actress waited a while before making her red carpet debut with the new look.
“My family was so supportive of me, and it was a whole year before I actually told the world and my fans that I cut it off,” she told the magazine.
Click through our gallery to see China’s red carpet evolution over the years.
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