When Jenna Ortega was 18, she wrote a collection of personal essays scattered with motivational aphorisms like “be spontaneous, don’t be afraid to let loose, laugh, and act goofy.” That book, which surfaced towards the end of her stint on the Disney Channel, was an exercise in personal branding that now seems at odds with the actor’s public image. In the two years since publication, Ortega has become a poster girl for the pop-horror genre, starring in blockbuster A24 slashers and The Addams Family spin-offs. She talks less about “being patient with a broken heart” and more about performing autopsies on dead lizards, “freak representation”, and her macabre interest in “disturbing things”. 

Though she is best known for playing a glum and disaffected sociopath, even Ortega’s more venal characters are tempered with wholesomeness. Perhaps that’s why she’s fronting adidas’ first new label in 50 years (adidas Sportswear) where goth-adjacent, black tracksuits are pinned with a “you can change the world girl” badge in Etsy lettering. Even the belt-as-tie styling looks like an innocent, schoolgirl quirk. Every now and then, the fashion industry casts a new protagonist, and Ortega’s appointment as adidas envoy is perhaps the latest instance of her taste-making cachet. Less than two weeks ago, she was placed…