Abigail Breslin confidently posed for photographers as she debuted her platinum blonde locks and bangs on Saturday in Universal City, Calif.

At the Variety Power of Youth event presented by Hasbro, Breslin wore a white maxi dress, vintage brown jacket and gold sandals. The simple outfit complimented her wavy locks, which was half-held up in a large bouff. (Click here to view the photos)

The 17-year-old actress joined other young stars at the event including Beasts of the Southern Wild's Quvenzhané Wallis, Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev, The Fosters' Jake Austin, Teen Wolf 's Tyler Posey and Bailee Madison.

"I'm really really grateful to Variety for this honor tonight and their continued encouragement, support and inspiration to young actors. The model of service represented tonight by fellow honorees is humbling and energizing," Breslin said during her acceptance speech. "Once you see how others are working for others, it becomes contagious and the drive to do more is ignited."

Instead of going straight to bleaching her hair, Breslin made a smooth transformation from brunette (March 2012) to blonde for Final Girl and finally, platinum.

"It's pretty terrifying," Breslin told E! News about dying her hair. "You wake up as a brunette and then you wake up the next morning and you're washing your hands in the bathroom and you're just like, 'That cannot be me!'"

On Wednesday, the actress tweeted, "It's out with the old and in with the new," which may be referring to her new look or transformation from young child star to adult actor.

The trailer (below) for Breslin's upcoming film, Haunter, was released on July 31. The thriller is set to hit theaters Oct. 18. She also stars in Ender's Game (Nov.1) with Harrison Ford and in August: Osage County with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.

Meanwhile, the Little Miss Sunshine star is enjoying her time off by catching up with this season's The Bachelorette.

"Had to take a break from watching The Bachelorette cause my heart can only take so much in the course of 1 day," she tweeted. "I'm sobbing for Des."

Tags: abigail breslin Haunter