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When people think about Hollywood, they focus too often on stars who party hard, spend thousands shopping, treat marriage frivolously and care more about dieting and primping than using their celebrity status to do good. But that’s not true at all of a new crop of young stars! Here’s who.

At Hollywoodlife.com we have been so impressed by young stars like Justin Bieber, who has donated hundreds of thousand of dollars, maybe even millions to charity. Not only did Justin donate profits from his new hit album, Under the Mistletoe to charities Make-A-Wish Foundation and Pencils of Promise, but he’s done the same thing with his profits for his fragrance , Someday, and he recently donated $100,000 to the Whitney Elementary School as well as played a concert there for itsunder privileged students.

But he’s just one young star who takes the concept of giving back, seriously. Taylor Swift talked recently about how she thinks about what she wears every day because she knows that she is a role model and doesn’t want to present too sexy an image. She also donated $1 million to charity and played a fundraising concert for victims of the Tennessee floods this year.

Demi Lovato has turned her own harrowing experience of having an eating disorder into an opportunity to speak out to millions of young women about the importance of appreciating their bodies and not trying to starve themselves  to be too thin. She just spoke out against Disney for promoting the idea of not eating, as if it was a joke in the So Random show.

Then there’s Miley Cyrus who’s worked hard to raise awareness for the poverty stricken victims of the Haiti earthquake. Selena Gomez who will drop whatever she’s doing to visit a sick fan in the hospital and Kristen Stewart who encourages her fans to follow her example and just be themselves with their own idiosyncrasies.

It’s so refreshing to have these young stars who want to be role models and who have close relationships with their fans. They don’t want to be unapproachable, snobby  and shallow.

So from all of us at Hollywoodlife.com — thanks to all the young stars who want to be role models and especially to our Role Model of 2011, Justin Bieber, and to Miley Cyrus, our Reader’s Choice as Role Model of The Year, for leading the way. Now take a look at all of those we are celebrating!

– Bonnie Fuller

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