Is Kristen Stewart the Next Angelina Jolie?

(Getty Images | PacificCoastNews.com)

Earlier this year, we wondered if Ryan Gosling could become the next Brad Pitt. Today, we want to know if Kristen Stewart can parlay her worldwide fame and success into a long and fruitful Hollywood career. More specifically, we ask: Can she transform herself into the nextAngelina Jolie. 

Kristen Stewart (Bauer Griffin)If the Breaking Dawn star hopes to step out from the world ofTwilight and become the highest paid actress in show biz, she's got a lot of work to do. The good news: the young actress, 21, has plenty of time on her side. Though Jolie landed her first leading role in Hackers at age 20, it wasn't until she turned 24 that Hollywood fully embraced the LA native. It was then that she took on the part of sociopath Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted.

Two years after receiving the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in that movie, Jolie was chosen to star in the film adaptation of the popular video game Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. And the rest, as the cliché goes, was history. Turning back to Stewart, here's what she'll need to do to follow suit. 

Channel Her Inner Action Hero

The majority of Zimbio readers seem confident Stewart can become an action hero. And after we saw her leap through a fiery inferno, get chased by Thor, and sword fight like natural in the spine-tingling trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman, we're hard pressed to question your judgement. KStew may win critical love when she stars in the low-budget film adaption of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. But if she wants to get paid top dollar, she'll need to focus on blockbuster roles. 

Jolie received an Oscar for her role in Girl, Interrupted. But it wasn't until after she helped Lara Croft: Tomb Raider earn a staggering $274 million at the box office that she became one of the industry's highest-paid actresses. If Stewart can find the same level of success with Snow White, there's no telling where her career can go from there. 

Go Public with Pattinson 
Stewart and Robert Pattinson haven't hesitated from getting frisky on the Twilightset, and at the Water for Elephants premiere in NYC, and yet the two on-screen lovers refuse to go public with their relationship. In contrast, Jolie has been dating Brad Pitt, one of the biggest and most powerful names in Hollywood, since 2005. 

And while it's true the actress had made a name for herself well before Pitt came into the picture, it's important not to underestimate the power of Brangelina. According to the Q Score, a marketing metric that measures a star's likeability factor, less than 1 in 3 Americans were familiar with Jolie in 2000. By 2006, a year after she and Pitt went public with their relationship, 81 percent of respondents said they knew the actress. 

Save the World
Remember when Jolie wore Billy Bob Thornton's blood in a vial around her neck, and kissed her brother in public? Both of those incidents got her plenty of press. They also left many thinking she had hopped on board the Crazy Train. 

But why dwell on the past when we can reflect on all of the noble humanitarian work she's done in the present? Founder of multiple charities, and mother of enough adopted children to put on an impromptu production of Annie, Jolie transcends the big screen. She's the female version of Bono, only likeable. 

Seeing as Stewart's only 21, it's understandable she's currently more concerned with acting than saving the world. Hell, most Americans her age are still relishing in the joy that they can finally order alcohol without a fake ID. Of course, Stewart's not your average woman. She's a world famous, well-paid movie star. So the least she could do is feed starving children in Africa -- or maybe pump out a charity record.