[8][9] The beginning of 1939 saw Young performing as the primary female interest in two films alongside the lead Herb Jeffries, Harlem Rides the Range and The Bronze Buckaroo.

[13] She was a cast member and dancer in Duke Ellington's revue Jump For Joy (1941),[14] a socially significant show for its outspokenness on racial matters of the time.

By 1945, Young had temporarily stopped performing in theatre and was working as a checkroom attendant at the nightclub Shepp's Playhouse in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Los Angeles (now Little Tokyo).

[15] In May 1946, she was in "Don't Go Home Yet" and was dance partners with Foster Johnson, they performed at the Finale Club in San Francisco.

[17] Young was married to fellow actor Eddie Brandon,[26] though she filed for divorce against her husband in September of 1938 for "cruelty and incompatibility".