Dawson was born and raised in a low-income neighborhood in New York. Call it luck, but one day they were shooting a commercial near the abandoned building where she lived. She went outside to see a member of the film crew she liked. Photographer and director Larry Clark approached her if she wanted to appear in his movie Kids. Despite being a tough-to-watch film that portrays the life of young New Yorkers dealing with vice and criminality, her family didn’t object. That first role gave rise to a star, and all of that was thanks to her smile. It’s difficult to deny that a smile goes a long way, right?