To celebrate her birthday, Disney+ dropped the trailer for Stargirl, the 16-year-old singer’s acting debut.
Here’s a synopsis: Leo Borlock is an average student at Mica High School. He gets decent grades, is a member of the school’s marching band and has always been content flying under the radar. But all that changes when he meets Stargirl Caraway, a confident and colorful new student with a penchant for the ukulele, who stands out in a crowd.
She is kind, finds magic in the mundane and touches the lives of others with the simplest of gestures. Her eccentricities and infectious personality charm Leo and the student body, and she quickly goes from being ignored and ridiculed to accepted and praised, then back again, sending Leo on a rollercoaster ride of emotions.
Grace VanderWaal and her Stargirl co-star Graham Verchere step out for the Disney+ panel at Disney’s D23 Expo on Friday (August 23) in Anaheim, Calif.
The young stars were there to talk about their upcoming movie, which they announced will launch on the new streaming service in early 2020.
Gina Rodriguez was also there to talk about a new series called Diary of a Female President, which she is executive producing. She’ll also be a recurring guest star on the show. She was joined by star Tess Romero to announce that the series will premiere on Disney+ in January. Told using the narration from her diary, this half-hour single camera comedy follows 12-year-old Cuban-American girl Elena’s journey through the trials of middle school, which set her on the path to ultimately become president of the United States.
FYI: Grace is wearing a Jonathan Cohen dress. Gina and Tess are matching in their Ellie Mae Studios blazer and pants.
The film is based on Jerry Spinelli‘s book of the same name, and centers on Leo, who follows the unspoken rule at Mica Area High School: don’t stand out–under any circumstances! Then Stargirl arrives at Mica High and everything changes – for Leo and for the entire school.
After 15 years of home schooling, Stargirl bursts into tenth grade in an explosion of color and a clatter of ukulele music, enchanting the Mica student body.
But the delicate scales of popularity suddenly shift, and Stargirl is shunned for everything that makes her different. Somewhere in the midst of Stargirl’s arrival and rise and fall, normal Leo Borlock has tumbled into love with her.
Stargirl is one of the first original films that will go through the company’s new streaming platform.
