HOLLYWOOD is constantly in search of new talent with the studio chiefs on the lookout for the next generation of stars.

And they may just find their answer in Ellen Page, the 20-year-old Canadian who is a Best Actress contender in this month's Oscars for her role in Juno, a coming-of-age story of a pregnant teenage schoolgirl.

At a time when actresses are complaining about the dearth of good scripts, Page and her peers such as Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Evan Rachel Wood have no problems landing juicy parts.

Ms Hilary Steinberg, a talent agent with Pakula/King & Associates in Los Angeles, says in an e-mail interview with Life!: 'Being attractive always helps in this business but these women are incredibly talented and are willing to take risks.'

She adds: 'Some people call that the It factor, which I believe is a way to describe having a charm and presence that transcends the screen and strikes a chord with audiences.'

These young actresses are not afraid to seek out roles in independent cinema where they are offered riskier and grittier roles.

They might have started young but they avoided acting in teen movies, which are normally seen as bad career moves.

'Teen movies tend to be less expensive to make and can still reap big box-office numbers,' says Ms Steinberg.

But the downside, she says, is that 'taking on roles in these films can carry a stigma that the actress isn't capable of more challenging work'.

It also has to do with the sign of the times, suggests Aurorae Khoo, visiting assistant arts professor at the Tisch School of the Arts.

She says: 'For these A-list, young Hollywood actresses who have the luxury of choosing what projects to work on, their roles reflect an upbringing in the 1960s to 1970s feminist movement in America, and a call for gender equality in the workplace and at home into the mainstream.

'They have grown up in a society where women demanding equal rights is expected.'

Hence, unlike their counterparts in previous generations such as Jane Fonda in Klute (1971) and Jodie Foster in The Bad News Bears (1976), Prof Khoo says, they 'don't have to be stripped of their sexuality to play strong women on film'.

She adds: 'The female characters they choose to play are active, strong protagonists but still retain their femininity.'