That mantle, “voice of a generation,” is a hard one to carry, especially when you’re fighting the perception that everyone under 25 (Gorman is 23) is frivolous. “I think a lot of fingers get pointed at Gen Z,” she says. “But the word ‘woke’ in itself invokes this idea that you are willing to sit a bit longer with information and think a bit more curiously about history. That necessitates a long attention span. It also necessitates, I think, empathy and understanding as a human being.” And where is the frivolity in that?

In some way, everything Gorman does has deep roots that she acknowledges — even putting on makeup. “I read about the history of makeup on the stage and how, in part, it was used as a storytelling device, especially [for a] larger audience,” she says. “[It] makes your features a lot more apparent to a watcher who might feel distant. And I knew that this inauguration, for many people, was going to feel less intimate because it was all virtual. So having vibrant makeup was a way for me to feel my best, but also a way that I wanted my face to make people feel a bit closer to me in who I was and what I was saying.”

Already a National Youth Poet Laureate, best-selling author, and inaugural sensation, Gorman recently added Estée Lauder Global Changemaker to her list of honors. It’s a first-of-its-kind partnership that will have Gorman doing much more than modeling makeup. As part of the deal, the beauty brand will contribute $3 million to Writing Change, a literacy initiative of which Gorman will be the curator. “I knew that if I was going to engage with a brand, I wanted to do it in a way that felt authentic to me,” she says. “I didn’t want to be constrained into the boilerplate ambassadorial relationship. I’m more than just a face. I think we can model a new type of relationship, one in which the women who engage in these beauty brand partnerships actually have agency, power that expands beyond themselves. Power that pays itself forward.”