Ramona Young is Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
The self-proclaimed introvert is leaning all the way into her fear.
FALL 2025
WORDS Rach Albright
PHOTOGRAPHY Meredith Jenks
You wouldn’t know it from her poise or the clarity of her thoughts, but Ramona Young swears she’s reserved. Shy, even. But don’t confuse her softness with meekness—she knows exactly what she wants, and she’s not afraid to step straight into her fear to go after it.
In conversation, there’s a thoughtful intentionality to her; every pause, every consideration feels like someone who has learned to listen closely to the world before deciding how to move through it. That internal calibration is both her safety net and her compass. It’s what keeps her grounded, even when everything around her is loud.
She’s equally methodical in creating her characters, and has an ability to use them as an extension of herself. “It's like a little safe space,” she says, almost like a mask she can put on when she wants to be her bolder, more extroverted self.
“It's really helpful when I do get to go into character because I feel like a part of me gets to express how I feel and my thoughts and what I have to say through characters. So every time I play a character, I'm speaking the truth. It might not be my words, but it's things that I can understand through a character.”
In The Paper, she plays Nicole Lee, who is equally uncomfortable as the center of attention—a quirk that was easy for Young to accomplish. Lee is a young, unpolished and awkward employee of the newspaper, playing in stark contrast to the more seasoned and professional coworkers around her. Though Ramona can see much of herself in that awkwardness, she draws the line at Nicole’s avoidance towards romantic relationships: “I am a little more emotionally open and I'm a little more optimistic.”
Otherwise, the character was completely hers to develop, with little-to-no descriptors or sides provided. “I pretty much brought all of myself to the character and everything about the character is genuinely how I would react or respond to something. It makes my job easier that I genuinely feel that way,” she says of Nicole’s uneasiness around the documentary cameras.
She continues, “I think Nicole is way more comfortable being an observer than someone who gets observed. I think that makes her really uncomfortable. I think she likes to stay low key and she likes to make her moves in silence. What I would love for her, and to parallel that possibly even for myself, is for her to be more comfortable in being transparent and being herself and being straightforward and unapologetic about being herself.”
PANTSUIT Epingler, SHOES Charles & Keith, BRACELET Ambush, EARRINGS Bottega Veneta
PANTSUIT Epingler, SHOES Charles & Keith, BRACELET Ambush, EARRINGS Bottega Veneta
Reserved or not, Young is game for just about anything. Her favorite scenes are ones where she really gets to go for it, putting herself squarely outside of her comfort zone. “I really loved this scene where Melvin's character throws up on me.. I like doing stuff like that. I like going for it.”
Like many introverts, she’s had to build her social skills from scratch. “I've had to teach myself to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. That did not come naturally to me.” She says she cried before her first-ever red carpet appearance, though you’d never guess it by the way she carries herself in these unnerving situations.
“I was so nervous,” she says of the night. “So it's really helpful when I do get to go into character because I feel like a part of me gets to express how I feel and my thoughts and what I have to say through characters.”
She recalls being inspired by Oscar (Nuñez, who plays Oscar Martinez in both The Paper and The Office)’s ability to always put his best self forward, being generous and charismatic with fans in any and all situations, “because what you do affects the people who approach you. It'll change their day. And he says, so what if I'm tired? I'm so lucky to be here, so what if I'm tired? I'm going to be the best version of myself because I know how much it means to these people, and I'm just like, that's the responsibility you have because of what we get to do for a living.”
TOP Rachael Cassar, BRA Skims, TROUSERS & SUSPENDERS Tom Ford by Haider Ackermann, EARRINGS Bottega Veneta, SHOES Prada
TOP Jackalope Land, TROUSERS Doublet, EARRINGS Bottega Veneta
And like going for it in her scenes, she doesn’t shy away from sitting with her unease, of reflecting, of reanalyzing what she wants and where she wants to go next. “Sometimes people are afraid of failing. Sometimes people are afraid of succeeding. Sometimes people are afraid of change, and these things in our minds that freak us out, they hold us back. And if you really want to get to where you want to go, you have to overcome those fears.”
For Young, that means stepping into more dramatic territory after years of comedy. She knows her natural timing and lightness make her a fit for humor, but she’s ready to move beyond the familiar and stretch herself in new ways: “I want to go there.”
She continues self-assuredly, “I mean, you have to be really honest with yourself. You have to be like, is this really what I want? And if you want it bad enough, you're going to do it despite your fears. And then the more you do it, the more you try it, the less powerful your fears will come across.”
In the end, Young’s introversion isn’t something she’s trying to outgrow—it’s something she’s learning to wield. It sharpens her instincts, keeps her observant, and gives her performances a kind of quiet voltage that extroversion can’t always access. She moves forward thoughtfully, not timidly; deliberately, not hesitantly. And if that means stepping into spaces that still make her pulse spike, she’ll do it anyway, knowing discomfort is just proof that she’s in motion. ❤
BRA Bluebella, TOP Stylist’s Own Creation, EARRINGS Bottega Veneta
BRA Bluebella, TOP Stylist’s Creation, SHORTS Pinko, RING Ramona’s Own, EARRINGS Bottega Veneta
STORY CREDITS
FEATURING Ramona Young, PHOTOGRAPHY Meredith Jenks, TALENT CASTING Muzam Agha, STYLIST Lisa Bae, HAIR Sarah Dougherty, MAKEUP Michelle Mungcal for Art Department, Saie Beauty,
PRODUCER Gina Polverini, ART DIRECTOR Minha Khan, STUDIO Studio Super LA
HERO IMAGE CREDITS
TOP Julie Colquitt, SKIRT Pinko, EARRINGS Justine Clenquet, SHOES Gucci
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