With that husky voice, red hair and freckles, the natural comparison might be Lindsay Lohan, but Emma Stone, the 22-year-old star of "The Help," "Crazy, Stupid, Love." and next year's reboot "The Amazing Spider-Man," reminds us more of Sandra Bullockmore, and not just because she's on a purely upward trajectory. It's her confidence, sass and apparent joie de vivre. "Superbad" was her version of "The Thing Called Love," where she played her supporting role with such flat-out humor that we barely noticed how pretty she was. Then came "Zombieland," her fast-paced wise-cracking action flick, a la "Speed." "The Help" is a better adaptation of a better book, but there's something about those Southern accents and the extremely girlie cast that remind us of Bullock's turn in "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood." Stone is a beauty, and she, like Bullock, will look great in award-season gowns for years to come. But when August's Vanity Fair arrived, with her on the cover, looking pretty but kind of awkward, a real fish out of water (and into a bikini), it clicked: Stone reminds us of Bullock because she just doesn't seem like a movie star; she's the cool girl next door who just happens to be an actress.

She's 22. She looks a lot like her "big" sisters, Mary-Kate and Ashley, but this Olsen, far less bobbleheaded-seeming than the fashionista twins, seems destined for more than designing the perfect T-shirt while guzzling a venti soy latte. Along with Brit Marling, Olsen was the toast of Sundance 2011, starring in two films, "Martha Marcy May Marlene" and the horror film "Silent House." We're thinking she's the next Maggie Gyllenhaal, another actress from an inside-Hollywood family with a heart-shaped face whose sweet features belie her fearless choices (think "SherryBaby" and "Secretary"). "Martha Marcy May Marlene," which features her as an escapee from a cult (headed by "Winter's Bone" actor John Hawkes), is slated for release this October, a sure sign that someone thinks it worthy of a fall theatrical debut. Despite her indie beginnings, Olsen is poised to do well in mainstream fare as well, just as Gyllenhaal ("The Dark Knight") has. She's in Bruce Beresford's "Peace, Love & Misunderstanding," premiering at Toronto in September, playing the teen daughter of Catherine Keener and granddaughter to Jane Fonda. Talk about lineage. Then she'll go on to star opposite Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver in the thriller "Red Lights," slated for a 2012 release. The sister of the "Full House" girls has a full plate ahead of her.

It was a small part in a movie overloaded with talent, but, playing Mark Ruffalo's lover in "The Kids Are All Right," Yaya DaCosta was hard to miss. There was the wildly sexy afro and the rolling around in bed with Ruffalo, but her character's quiet longing for a commitment struck the more notable chord. She's 28 and before "Kids" had already had what some might call a lucky break, playing the romantic lead in 2007's "Honeydripper" for prestigious director John Sayles. But DaCosta went right from "Honeydripper" to a stint on "All My Children," evidence of how hard it is for black actresses to make the big time. (Further evidence: The role model we've assigned to DaCosta, Halle Berry, was 35 and had been working for a decade before she really became Halle Berry.) But DaCosta has real potential. She's beautiful enough to have been a model (and was runner-up on the third season of "America's Next Top Model") but her dramatic interests seem far ranging. She can do mainstream (if you don't blink, you'll catch her as a sexy robot in "Tron: Legacy"). She can do TV ("Ugly Betty"). And obviously, she can do indie fare, like "Kids." Next up for the graduate of Brown is a leading role in "Whole Lotta Sole," the new film from "Hotel Rwanda" director Terry George, and a smaller part in "In Time," the Justin Timberlake-Amanda Seyfried sci-fi thriller slated for a late-October release.

Anna Kendrick is a marvelously deft comedian. She manages to find humor in those dimwitted and ponderous "Twilight" scripts. In "Up in the Air," she batted around dialogue with George Clooney as if they were a pair of tennis pros on holiday. She's more cute than pretty and tends to be perky. Which is why the 26-year-old seems slated for a Reese Witherspoon-style career. (That's not to say we're counting on Witherspoon to vacate her throne anytime soon; she's only nine years older than Kendrick.) With the exception of "Walk the Line," Witherspoon has always excelled at projects with a comic edge, and we have a hunch the same will be true for Kendrick. Certainly she seems headed that way, with roles in "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and "Rapturepalooza" (which sounds like "Zombieland" with Christians). She's signed up to test her dramatic chops in "End of Watch," a cop drama still in preproduction with Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena and America Ferrera. In the meantime, we're looking forward to September's cancer dramedy "50/50," where Kendrick has her first big shot at The Girl part, opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Like Moore, "The Tree of Life" star Chastain, 30, worked for years before anyone really took notice of her. Like Moore, Chastain needed to pair with a legendary director, Terrence Malick, before the world began to swoon at her feet (it was Robert Altman's 1993 film "Short Cuts" that got Moore, 33, noticed). Now, suddenly, the flame-haired actress is everywhere, vaulting from TV shows like "Law & Order: Trial by Jury" to the big screen (Moore herself did time on the soap opera "As the World Turns"). That same theater background that has made Moore such a versatile performer seems to be helping Chastain diversify as well. She's seriously heartbreaking in Malick's "The Tree of Life" but proves funny and sweet (OK, and a little heartbreaking, too) in the lady-centric potential blockbuster "The Help" early this month. Next up for Chastain? Malick is reportedly in post-production on his next film, which she also stars in, but let's not hold our breath for that. In the meantime, she'll show up against one younger colleague on this list in October's "Texas Killing Fields" and against another (keep reading) in director John Hillcoat's "The Wettest County in the World," which also stars Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and Guy Pearce. Oh, and don't be surprised if she's at next year's Oscars, sitting in the audience while the names of the best supporting actresses are read.

Obvious, isn't it? The "Hugo" star and the Oscar winner are both petite, blond acting dynamos who made shocking films at an early age (between the corpses and the cursing, "Kick-Ass" was right up there with "Taxi Driver" in terms of igniting indignation) and had a direct line to Martin Scorsese before their 14th birthdays. Moretz's funny, precocious little girl in " (500) Days of Summer" could have been inspired by Foster's wry turn in 1974's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," although in "Summer" there's nothing like the genius of Foster's "So long, suckers" speech. Like Foster, Moretz has an early but firm grasp on the dark side. She played a soulful, sad vampire in "Let Me In" and will be featured in Tim Burton's "Dark Shadows" opposite Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, due in 2012. "Texas Killing Fields" arrives in theaters this October, a month before "Hugo," Scorsese's lush 3-D adventure, for which she slips into a proper British accent. Now all Moretz has to do is grow up to be as impressive as Foster: actress, director, mother, all-around sane person. Can she do it? We'd put money on it.

Both have some familiarity with mean girls, since Ryder hung out with them in "Heathers" and Meester rules the Manhattan social roost in "Gossip Girl." But that's not the reason for the comparison. It is those melting brown eyes, dazzlingly sweet smiles, old-fashioned beauty and, most important, the sense of vulnerability underneath it all. Meester played a dangerous wack job in "The Roommate" this year, a truly stupid, shoddily made movie, but instead of wanting someone to put a knife through her character's heart, something about her made us wonder if someone could just persuade that pretty psycho to get back on her meds. Meester was a much better reason to see "Country Strong" than Gwyneth Paltrow, and about the only reason we'd endure "Monte Carlo." Next up, likely a visit to the Toronto Film Festival for the premiere of "The Oranges," which pairs her romantically with "House" star Hugh Laurie in a May-December love story. Next year she's got "I Hate You, Dad" with Adam Sandler and more "Gossip Girl."

U.K. native Barden, 19, stole the show in "Tamara Drewe" as a comically devious teen obsessed with a rock star (Dominic Cooper). In "Hanna," she was Sophie, the extremely contemporary British teen who befriends Saoirse Ronan's young assassin. Barden gave such droll, open, mercurial performances in each that we were instantly captivated, and reminded of another offbeat actress who had a similar blend of toughness and vulnerability as a teen: Juliette Lewis, circa 1991's "Cape Fear." Lewis' career took a course away from leading-lady status sometime around the time she played a mentally challenged girl in the 1999 film "The Other Sister," and a musical career put her acting into hiatus. But now she's re-emerged as one of the least self-conscious and most reliable supporting actresses around ("Conviction," "Due Date," "Whip It"). We have a hunch that Barden, who had her first break on the British soap "Coronation Street," could do the same. Next up for Barden, a Brit horror film called "Comedown" and working with Dominic Lees, the director of "Outlanders," on a film called "Saving Amy."

Jones, 27, was one of two breakout female stars at Sundance 2011 (look for her competition later in this list), thanks to raves for "Like Crazy," a passionate romance between a young British woman and her American boyfriend (Anton Yelchin) whose love is thwarted by visa issues. You'll be able to see that Oct. 28, and then you can make your own assessment of who Jones might remind you of. She's slippery. In England she's been compared to Audrey Hepburn, but that's a gauntlet we don't like to throw down. The actress she most physically resembles, with that dark hair and pout, is a young Isabelle Adjani. That she got her first big break in a TV adaptation of a classic ("Northanger Abbey") reminds us of Kate Beckinsale in her "Cold Comfort Farm" era (before all the action flicks and leather outfits). But we're placing bets on Jones to have a career that looks more like Rachel Weisz's in terms of prestige and making it across the pond. Both got their start acting at England's best universities (Weisz at Cambridge, Jones at Oxford). Both were drawn to weird arty flicks that bombed (Weisz with Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain," Jones with Julie Taymor's "The Tempest"). Jones is already signed up to reunite with her "Like Crazy" director, Drake Doremus, for an untitled project, but in the meantime, she has other projects going: "Hysteria" with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy and Rupert Everett (her co-star from "Cheri"), a made-for-the-BBC thriller called "Page Eight," and a comedy, "This Beautiful Fantastic." In "Page Eight," Jones has just a small part; the female lead is Rachel Weisz.

Thanks to the "Hunger Games" trilogy, now in production, Jennifer Lawrence, who turns 21 this month, doesn't stand a chance of not being big-time famous within a year. Taking on the role of Katniss Everdeen, the best-known teen since Bella Swan — and a lot cooler, in our opinion — makes it a sure thing. The path of Lawrence's fame is less obvious. She played a resilient teen trying to save her family home in "Winter's Bone," a film that gives her indie credibility and landed her an Oscar nomination. It seemed as if she'd come out of nowhere, but actually, she'd been busy with supporting roles in "The Beaver" (where she played the hot but deep cheerleader), "X-Men: First Class" (as Mystique), the upcoming October release "Like Crazy" (with Felicity Jones) and 2008's "The Burning Plain." In that movie, she happened to play a teenage version of Charlize Theron's character, but that's not the first reason we think of Theron when we look at Lawrence. It's her sense of power (which will come in handy for Katniss), inner cool and sensuality. Chronologically, Lawrence is barely out of girlhood, but she comes across as a fully formed woman already. That may take her out of the running for ingénue roles, but who needs those? Theron sure didn't.

There are plenty of ingénues out there who would like to be compared to Julia Roberts or Cameron Diaz. But we have a hunch that Wasikowska, 21, who has played an almost grown-up "Alice" for Tim Burton and the ultimate plain Jane in this year's acclaimed adaptation of "Jane Eyre," would relish the compliment of being compared to Tilda Swinton. What do we see in Wasikowska that warrants the comparison? A lack of vanity, an offbeat beauty but, mostly, smart, soulful choices that suggest she doesn't have a craven bone in her body. Wasikowska ("The Kids Are All Right") is one of the most talented actresses of her generation and the least likely to go Hollywood on us. She's got an eye for photography that could easily turn into a second career, if she so pleased. Who knows? She might. Maybe it's that sense of deserving recognition but not needing stardom that reminds us of Swinton. She first gathered notice with 2008's "In Treatment" and then went on to "The Kids Are All Right" before landing the twin honors of Alice and Jane. Expect no plastic surgery or inane rom-coms; Wasikowska is a natural, drawn to playing real women (but that's not to say she can't do glamour, too, just like Swinton). Look for her in this September's "Restless," directed by Gus Van Sant, and then opposite Glenn Close in "Albert Nobbs." Next year she'll be in "The Wettest County in the World," alongside fellow list-maker Jessica Chastain. The sky's the limit for this Aussie.

Brit Marling doesn't have an obvious prototype, because when was the last time an unknown young actress waltzed onto the scene with a pair of movies she stars in and co-wrote? Julie Delpy and Emma Thompson are both Oscar-nominated screenwriters, but both had a lot of acting experience before making that transition. Georgetown graduate Brit Marling didn't get roles until she wrote them for herself. Those films, "Another Earth" and "Sound of My Voice," both debuted to acclaim at Sundance this year, with considerable attention focused on Marling's grave, riveting on-screen presence. In dramatic style, Marling calls to mind Naomi Watts, another blonde with cool blue eyes, keen intelligence and an uncanny ability to hold the eye. Remember the way Watts floored us all in "Mulholland Drive"? Her bold performance had us wondering where she came from, why we hadn't seen her before and when we could see her again. Watching "Another Earth," in which Marling plays a young woman riddled with guilt over a fatal drunken-driving accident, there's that same excitement. In "Sound" (which doesn't yet have a release date) she's a cult leader. Next up for Marling is a role in 2012's hedge-fund thriller "Arbitrage," opposite Richard Gere and Tim Roth. Those fancy co-stars suggest she's arrived; her talent suggests she'll stick around.