Over the past few weeks, I’ve been breaking down the nine ’90s fashion icons you need to know about if you want to truly understand the decade’s look. This week I’m breaking down another ’90s fashion star.

We already covered Hollywood royalty Drew Barrymore. Today, it’s all about another woman whose career is thriving just as much today as it was back then. I’m talking about the beautiful scene-stealer Winona Ryder.

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Winona Ryder Biography

Winona Ryder was an alternative it-girl in the 1990s. Her roles weren’t quite what you’d expect for a beauty and style icon, but we loved her all the more for them.

Winona’s parents lived a bohemian lifestyle and were both writers (even friends with beat poetry legend Allen Ginsberg). They raised Winona on a commune.

It was on the commune ranch that Winona first started watching movies (shown in a makeshift theatre in the commune barn) and fell in love with acting. At age 12, she began studying the craft outside of school.

Things in school were difficult for Winona. She was bullied and beat up for her boyish appearance. But, in a now-famous story, she later got back at her bullies by calling them out when they asked her for an autograph. Truly iconic.

In the late ‘80s, Winona starred in two of her most famous movies to date — Beetlejuice, the Tim Burton classic in which she plays a gothic teenage girl named Lydia, and Heathers, the dark comedy cult hit about a clique of high school girls.

These roles catapulted Winona to stardom. In 1990, she starred in Edward Scissorhands alongside Johnny Depp who she was dating at the time. They were both young idols of the era known for their popular yet bizarre acting roles, so their relationship was highly publicized.