Kiernan Shipka grew up on set, starting at six years old as Sally Draper on Mad Men, watching Jon Hamm and January Jones unravel in perfect tailoring. The trip from child stardom to adulthood usually ends in tragedy, but Shipka flipped the script: she got an education instead of a complex. Now, at 26, she plays an ambitious assistant on HBO Max’s Industry and appears in The Shitheads, which premiered at Sundance. Shipka spent her life with adults, and it shows. She’s a rare Hollywood success story—a child actor who burns bright, not out.
WAKE-UP TIME: I am a huge sucker for sleep, so on a weekend I wake up at 10:30 or 11:00, but my ideal wake-up time during the week is 8:00.
MORNING ROUTINE: If I’m working out, which is about four days a week, I do it right when I get up. Coffee is after that. Then I’ll do Wordle and Connections.
WORKOUT: Strength training, cardio, and jumping on my mini-trampoline, which I don’t think of as a workout because it’s so fun! I’m bouncing 24-7, and it feels so good!
ALWAYS IN YOUR FRIDGE: Coffee, water, cheese, butter.
VITAMINS & SUPPLEMENTS: I don’t have a consistent vitamin-and-supplement regimen, but I could probably benefit from some vitamin D.
COCKTAIL/MOCKTAIL: I love a margarita, and sometimes a Negroni at the right place and the right time. I love, love a Hugo spritz, but that’s more of a spring-summer drink for me.
ENERGY BOOST: Honestly, texting or sending a meme to a friend and having a funny back-and-forth banter. My friends give me a lot of energy.
FAVORITE APP: I recently discovered Google Maps. I travel a lot, and my friends send me amazing lists of places to go on Google Maps. I then create and save my own map and send it to others if they’re traveling and want advice. I’ve always written a manual list of travel tips, so this is genius!
WORST VICE: Staying on my phone too much. Looking at my screen time at the end of the day and thinking, “Oh, no.”
SMALL HABIT THAT’S MADE A BIG CHANGE IN YOUR LIFE: Dream journaling! When I have a dream, I write it down immediately, put my Jungian cap on in the morning, and analyze it. I’ve taken a deep dive into that world and have learned a lot about myself.
HOW DO YOU STAY GROUNDED? I try to focus on the life I want to build outside of my image or people’s perception of me, and enjoy what’s real around me, like friends and family. I also put limits on how much I read about myself because that can be really dangerous.
WHAT DO YOU DO FOR SELF-CARE? I plan my day and week in advance, looking at my goals and habits. I think making the plan is the greatest form of self-care. It causes me to look at my life, decide what I’m going to commit to, and stick to it. When I end the day, and I’ve done the things that I wanted to do, I feel like I’ve grown as a person.
ROLE MODEL: I’ve learned so much from so many different people. I feel like I’ve woven my own little tapestry from all of these different people I grew up around.
STYLE INSPO: Janie Bryant, the costume designer for Mad Men, instilled in me at a young age that style could tell a story. It was a light-bulb moment when I realized that it’s not just about pretty clothes; there’s a narrative behind them, and I’ve always taken that with me.
MAKEUP TIPS YOU’VE LEARNED ON SET: I’ve worked with the same makeup artist for almost 13 years, and she’s incredible, truly phenomenal. I’m pretty good at doing my own makeup now because I’ve absorbed what she’s done.
GO-TO SPA TREATMENT: There are so many amazing Korean spas in L.A. where you can do a sauna, cold plunges, and scrubs before a massage. That is my favorite.
SKIN-CARE M.V.P.’S: iS Clinical cleanser and Pro-Heal Serum Advance. I got a La Roche-Posay moisturizer at Duane Reade the other day, and it’s super-hydrating and fragrance-free, which I like. If I’m feeling fancy, I use Biologique Recherche. Their Masque Vivant is the ultimate face mask.
SKIN TOOLS: I got the Shark CryoGlow LED Face Mask, and it’s great. It makes my skin look and feel better. I don’t use any other tools on my own, but if someone has a gua sha or any of those, like, pulsating, vibrating things, I’m down.
FIRST BEAUTY PRODUCT: Benefit Lip Tint. I think that might have been my first experience with makeup.
MAKEUP HEROES: I’m always lip first. Everything else is secondary when it comes to makeup. I’ll do a little overline in the brown or maroon lip-liner family and feel like I’m good to go. When I have a makeup artist, and they do an incredible, amazing eye, I’m all there for it, but if I tried that on my own … no one would be there for it.
HAIR-CARE ESSENTIALS: I’m an Olaplex girly. I think it has kept my hair from falling out of my head!
SCENT: I don’t wear perfume daily, so if someone says I smell good, I know it’s just from hair product and body cream.
DAILY UNIFORM: I pretty much wear a vintage T-shirt with black or denim jeans and slides every day.
FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOUR APPEARANCE: I really like my eyebrows. They’ve always been so thick that, as I’ve gotten older, Kristie Streicher [of the Striiiike salon, in L.A.] has thinned them into a slightly leaner, elongated look.
PAST STYLE REGRETS: Oh, my God. Endless! And a lot are on the Internet. I would say I have had style flubs, but no regrets. You learn from your mistakes and move on.
PIECE OF ADVICE YOU WOULD GIVE TO YOUR YOUNGER SELF: Make more mistakes. I was always so afraid of making mistakes, and now I’m a little more excited to take a chance, flop, and learn from it.
WHEN DO YOU FEEL THE MOST BEAUTIFUL? I look at photos of myself where I thought at the time I looked horrible and was so self-conscious, and now think, Wow, I look so beautiful there. Why did I not see that then? Now I feel most beautiful when everything feels like me, when I feel like myself, I’m wearing an outfit I’m comfortable in; I like my hair and makeup, and it all just comes together.
BEST AND WORST THINGS ABOUT GROWING UP ON MAD MEN: The best was everything I learned. My entire acting education came from being a child on set. There’s a sense of professionalism and a way of approaching work that were instilled in me at a very young age, and I still revere and value them. The hardest thing was probably just being perceived so young. It wasn’t hard in the moment, but I think fame and recognition at a young age can be complicated. So, acting on sets at six, seven, and eight years old was a lot of fun at the time, but also something to unpack psychologically later.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM WORKING WITH JON HAMM? Professionalism. I worked with the consummate professional who was kind, caring, engaging, and an amazing scene partner. He really cared about the people on that set. I took that lesson to heart and try to behave that way on every set I’m on. He is a wonderful human.
WHEN ARE YOU HAPPIEST? When I’m around my friends and family, and we’re laughing, and I’m present with the people I love.
BEST THING ABOUT GROWING OLDER: Caring less about stuff that you once cared about. Now, when something happens, I think, Oh, my God, that doesn’t bug me!, and it would have so bugged me when I was younger. It’s such a freeing feeling! You know yourself a little better, and I think that’s amazing. I’ve really been enjoying growing up a little bit!
Holly Parmelee, formerly an associate publisher at Little, Brown and Company, is an editor and writer at Serendipity magazine