At long last, the Dazed 100 list is here. The Dazed 100 has always been about championing creativity and innovation, featuring the most inspiring change-makers from across the globe. And, for the second year ever, there’s a dedicated USA list highlighting the diverse creative class pushing boundaries and creating change across America. Dazed 100 alumni have gone on to helm their industries, set whole new standards in their practices, and make radical change in the world.

The sophomore USA list is as wide-ranging as the US itself, highlighting up-and-coming talent from New York, California, Texas, Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, Utah, Illinois, Michigan and more. Curated by the Dazed team, the list encompasses rising talent across fashion, beauty, art, photography, music, entertainment, activism and sports. It includes the most promising rising stars and a number of familiar faces, including 2025 Dazed cover stars, Mahmoud Khalil, Vivian Wilson and Chase Infiniti. 

As well as celebrating the next generation of creatives, activists, and pioneers for their individual achievements, this year’s list is a reminder that the Dazed 100 is about the people who are collectively driving youth culture forward. “The Dazed 100 isn’t just about people on the rise – it’s about how these individuals and communities, their ideas and creativity, are shaping and reshaping culture as we know it,” says Ted Stansfield, Editor-in-Chief of Dazed.

Below, get to know some of the handpicked creatives that make up this year’s Dazed 100 USA list.

MAB

For Connecticut-born SFX artist Mab, bodies are not only a source of inspiration but a canvas. The 26-year-old specialises in airbrush art, using surreal, hypersexual designs as a way to make commentary on Black women’s bodily autonomy. “Airbrushing allows me to blur the boundaries between the tangible and the ethereal, the body and the fabric,” Mab told Dazed in 2024. “By airbrushing clothing directly onto women’s bodies and bodies onto clothing, I metaphorically explore how women, especially women of colour, navigate the weight of societal expectations while remaining unapologetically themselves.” 

JOHN NOVOTNY

If you’ve ever admired the tresses of Chappel Roan, Charlie XCX, or Julia Fox, chances are you’ve come across the work of John Novotny. Using hair as a medium for storytelling, hair artist Novotny creates fantastical, otherworldly looks in their work. Experimenting with wigs, colour and shape, the New York-based beauty expert produces imaginative creations that exemplify their ethos: “Beauty is understanding and intention. Beauty is nuanced.”

MAHMOUD KHALIL

As a result of his activism, Palestinian Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil experienced an unlawful arrest and deportation attempt in 2025. He had since been released. Despite spending 104 days in detention, Khalil, who also appeared on the cover of Dazed’s Uncensored issue, remains committed to the cause. “To me, the thing is just to not lose hope and to continue putting pressure on the system, because they want us to feel hopeless,” he said in conversation with photographer Nan Goldin. “They want us to feel useless, like we cannot do anything. But the fact that they’re going all this way to criminalise our speech, to criminalise dissent, means that what we’re doing matters and is making change.”

CORTISA STAR

The sky is the limit for Corsia Star, who, at just 20 years old, has also made a name for herself in the hip hop world. Before even reaching the legal drinking age, the Delaware-raised rapper has already received cosigns from Doechii, walked as a Miu Miu girl at Paris Fashion Week, and toured internationally. The young artist also doesn’t shy away from speaking about the realities of trans girlhood, both in her music and elsewhere. “Being a doll online is like winning the Hunger Games, but the trade is trying to kill you, and you also want to kill the trade,” Star told Bauti Botto Barilli in Dazed’s Uncensored issue.

GRACE BYRON

A journalist and cultural critic, Grace Byron is hardly a newcomer to the writing scene. 2025, though, marked a new milestone for the writer, who published her debut novel Herculine this October. The literary horror follows an unnamed protagonist who joins a commune exclusively for trans women, only to discover the utopia she was promised is more complicated than it seems. Like Byron’s previous work, Herculine explores the complexities of the trans experience. “While institutions may fail us, our individual bonds and communities are really important,” Byron told Dazed in October. 

UPSTAIRS NEIGHBORS

True to their name, Upstairs Neighbors makes listening to a podcast feel like you’re in conversation with people you already know. The show is hosted by Dom Roberts and Maya Umemoto Gorman, two best friends who met during a chance encounter outside of a club in Los Angeles. The pair’s magnetism as friends is what makes Upstairs Neighbors worth listening to; their constant riffing and use of internet speak can come across as another language, but one you can’t turn away from. “I always tell people it’s as if you were coming over to a friend’s house, and two people were already talking when you walked in,” Roberts said in conversation with Dazed.

ADAM ROUHANA

“Photography is not really a practice, it’s just part of who I am,” Palestinian-American photographer Adam Rouhana told Dazed in 2023. That commitment to the craft is clear in Rouhana’s work, where he creates images of everyday life in historic Palestine as a subversive act – kids playing, families picnicking, barbershops, but also soldiers, checkpoints, and surveillance. By introducing new narratives, Rouhana uses the language of photojournalism to build a contemporary visual identity shaped by self-determination.

SHAWNA WU

Inspired by traditional Taiwanese carvings and Chinese knotting techniques, the work of New York-based fashion designer Shawna Wu puts a fresh spin on centuries-old practices. “For my stuff, I want to keep my roots true and try not to edit it based on a colonial approach to good taste,” Wu told Dazed in an interview in October. Though Wu only made her New York Fashion Week debut this year, her designs have already caught the eye of Ayra Starr, Charlie xcx and Lily-Rose Depp. 

ZAYA PERYSIAN

Zaya Perysian is a 22-year-old content creator and political activist. After receiving the wrong sex marker on her passport earlier this year, Zaya Perysian worked with the ACLU on a class action case that’s becoming a precedent for trans people across the country. “I’ll never lose hope in America’s trans community, no matter how the political climate shifts, because we’re not easy to get rid of and we’re not going anywhere,” Perysian told Dazed. 

AUDREY HOBERT

Though you may not have heard of Audrey Hobert until this year, chances are, you might already be familiar with her work. The singer-songwriter is a longtime collaborator of Gracie Abrams and has co-written some of Abrams’ biggest hits. This year, though, she’s proven herself to be a force to be reckoned with on her own. Hobert’s debut album, Who’s the Clown?, is an impressively candid body of work that’s as direct and endearing as Hobert herself. “These are the only 12 songs I’ve written, so I hope you like them. That’s all I’ve got for now,” she told Dazed back in August.