Lindsay Lohan

When it came time to find a young actress to assume the role of the twins (originated by Hayley Mills) for the 1998 remake of the film "The Parent Trap," an exhaustive casting search occurred throughout the USA, Canada and even in London. Perhaps because the behind-the-scenes figures opted to avoid the obvious and cast the Olsen twins, thousands of girls were considered. After three callbacks and a screen test with stars Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson, freckle-faced Long Islander, Lindsay Lohan, won the role....

Nicole Richie

Like her fellow socialite and best friend, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie attained fame largely through partying alongside as well as co-starring with the blonde heiress on their reality hit show, “The Simple Life.” As the daughter of famed pop singer Lionel Richie, she first enjoyed an opulent lifestyle mainly as the largesse of someone else’s fame and money, but she eventually became a quasi-celeb – both in her own right and on her own terms. A favorite of the tabloids, Richie received intense scrutiny after slimming down dramatically in the mid 2000s – a transformation which led to much speculation about how healthy her weight loss actually was....

Britney Spears

A bubbly, blonde pop music sensation who built a fan base with a girl-next-door sweetness, catchy tunes, flashy dance moves and a magnetic sexual appeal, Britney Spears went from a small-town Louisiana girl to the veritable heir to Madonna's media saturation crown, beginning with the release of her first single in 1998 and holding fast well into the next millennium – and much like Madonna, the attention quickly shifted away from her artistry and focused squarely on her personal dramas....

Jane Fonda

Two-time Academy Award-winning actress Jane Fonda has undergone nearly as many transformations throughout her career as a cat has lives, and each new phase of her life, however scandalous or controversial, has kept the general public fascinated. The daughter of film legend Henry Fonda (and sister of Peter) parlayed the family name into a modeling career followed rapidly by a movie debut in "Tall Story" (1960). Her title role in "Cat Ballou" (1965) confirmed her as a full-fledged Hollywood princess just as she was metamorphosing to the 1960s sex kitten embodied in decadent French director and then-husband Roger Vadim's "Barbarella" (1968)....

James Marsden

A former Versace model, James Marsden began his career in show business after meeting Tiger Beat cover boy Kirk Cameron while their families were vacationing at the same Hawaiian hotel in 1990. After appearing in a production of "Bye Bye Birdie" in college, Marsden decided to jet off to Los Angeles. Almost immediately, he began making guest star appearances on series television – some of which were the biggest shows on television at the time – before finding a regular slot of his own on the low-budget syndicated teen series "Boogie's Diner" (1995)....

Young Hollywood’s top-earning celebrities

Britney, Paris and Nicole make the headlines, these stars just make money

If the tabloids are to be believed, Hollywood's young stars are in big trouble. Each day brings new tales — and the pictures to prove it — of junior VIPs, bereft of adult supervision, engaged in drinking, hard-partying, and the kind of sexual exploits typically reserved for pay-per-view.

But the salacious scenes of Britney, Paris and Nicole are overshadowing the other story in entertainment, that of the growing cadre of soon-to-be superstars, the most talented, aggressive and well-compensated group of showbiz kids in Hollywood history.

Forbes' Young Hollywood's Top-Earning Stars is an exclusive list of the entertainment industry's most sought-after talent under 21 years of age. While a few — most notably Lindsay Lohan — are well known, most of these names aren't. Commit them to memory — these are mega-careers in the making.