At the end of Boston Children’s Theatre’s summer session in 2014, it was announced the upcoming season would include “The Diary of Anne Frank.’’

Zehava Younger’s mother, Andi Freedman, took notice.

“Every Jewish mother who has an actress for a daughter has a simple dream,’’ said Younger. “They want her to play all the girls in ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ Anne Frank, and Fanny Brice.’’

It was a good instinct.

Younger, 15, of Beverly — who has been involved in theater since she was 7 — won the lead role in the production and portrayed Frank to acclaim.

She recently received the Best Promising Young Performer award from the Independent Reviewers of New England and has been nominated for an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Actress in the small theater category.

“It hasn’t sunk in fully yet,’’ said Younger, a sophomore at Beverly High School. “I’m in a little bit of shock.’’

For a young actress, Younger has a packed resume: North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Stoneham Theatre, Salem’s Rebel Shakespeare, and others.

“Theater is people getting on stage and creating a special world that only exists for that moment,’’ she said. “You step into that space and feel the energy. There’s a magic you can feel.’’

Younger had mostly been involved in musicals — at the high school where she also is part of chorus and select choir, as well as professional theaters, when “The Diary of Anne Frank’’ came along.

Playing the girl who kept a diary while hiding with her family for two years, and who later died in a concentration camp, was Younger’s first dramatic role.

“I wouldn’t want my first actual play to be anything else,’’ she said. “As a young Jewish girl, I’ve always felt connected to Anne Frank. Before rehearsals I read her diaries and the way she reacted to different situations sounded like myself.

“An actor’s job is to find yourself in that character and that’s what makes it work.’’

The production, she said, was “the perfect storm: the right theater, the right people, the right director. It was an incredible experience. I was having the time of my life.’’

Younger said she plans to study musical theater and acting in college.

“I am lucky enough to have found what I love to do very early,’’ she said. “It hasn’t changed for almost nine years now, so I don’t think it will.’’

WENDY KILLEEN

Wendy Killeen can be reached at wdkilleen@gmail.com.