We’re celebrating our tenth issue this season, which means it’s been five years since our first Twin book was released. To celebrate, we thought we would look back over the issues, reminisce a little. In Twin V we spoke with actors, artists, playwrights and more for a feature called Top Girls, a look at the emerging British names set to be stars. Here, Twin caught up with some of those girls to see where they are now…

Lily Jones

When we last spoke to Lily, an artisan baker, she had only just written a business plan, hired staff and opened a café on Columbia Road. Things are now a little more global: “I have been working on a bakery project in Kochi, India which is now open for business and I also consult for 5 bakeries in the Middle East.” As well as her international feats, Lily recently released her second book, Sweet Tooth and also (somehow) finds time to act as co-founder of The YBFs, “a food & drink awards which spotlights and celebrates new, innovative talent in the industry. Our 3rd annual event this year will be hosted at Tate Britain.” Busy just doesn’t cut it.

lilyvanilli.com

Harley Weir

As well as working on projects with subjects such as “the suburban heaven” in which she grew up, Harley teaches part-time and is attracting jobs that are more in tune with her interests. “[I am] finally putting a few brain cells aside for fashion, which I have come to admit (as hard as it was) is my trade.” With past clients such as British Vogue, Paul Smith, Another Magazine, Topshop, I-D Magazine, Supreme and Stella Mccartney to name a few, it’s safe to say this photographer has come a long way since her sexual photo-diary.

harleyweir.tumblr.com

Rachel De-lahay

Rachel’s debut play THE WESTBRIDGE was about to open at the time Twin V was released and it went on to win Best Play at the Writers Guild Award. De-lahay also received acclaim for her second piece of theatre, ROUTES, winning the Evening Standard Award for Best New Playwright.

This young writer is about to open her third play in Birmingham this May, before it comes south to the Tricycle Theatre in London. For her next move, we will see her work on screen as she has just completed a pilot for a new BBC drama. “I’m [also] currently writing a feature film with Film Four and Independent (the producers who made We Need To Talk About Kevin) and was selected as Screen Nations Screen Star of Tomorrow, and am developing my own comedy drama series for Channel Four as well as adapting a blog for Fox Television.” De-lahay is certainly a name we are going to see much more of in the future. Watch this space.

Billie JD Porter

For Billie it was never really about the DJing; that and the music writing/promoting acted as a platform to help her get on her way (at the tender age of 14 we might add). Documentaries were the end goal and having just spent seven months in South America, working on a series of films for the BBC called ‘Secrets of South America,’ it seems that dream is now a reality. But what of the parties? “There’s a lot less chaos in my life at the moment. I’m not sure if that’s a permanent thing though.”

billiejd.blogspot.co.uk

Julia King

“Around the time that I was in Twin I won a Holcim Award in the ‘Next Generation’ category, an international competition that recognizes innovative projects and future-oriented concepts which really helped kick start my career.” And what a career this architect already has. One that has brought sanitation infrastructure to 2000 plus people in a resettlement colony in Delhi called Savda Ghevra, through her work with CURE. This year has been spectacular for King she states, “I was awarded the Emerging Woman Architect of the Year by the Architectural Journal and won a SEED Award for ‘Excellence in Public Interest Design‘ for the sanitation project in Savda Ghevra.” But that’s not all of them, last year King was also included in ICON magazines ‘Future 50′ – a snap shot of 50 young designers and architects who are pushing the boundaries of their disciplines and trying to change the world. And that PhD she was working on when we last spoke, well that will be completed this summer.

julia-king.com

Photography: Nick Dorey, originally published in Twin V