NewsUSAZendaya's secret to success: a mix of perseverance and an inquisitive attitude

Zendaya’s secret to success: a mix of perseverance and an inquisitive attitude

Zendaya (Oakland, California, 26 years old) was one of the undisputed protagonists of 2022. Again. Since her film debut with Spider Man Homecoming in 2017, the past 2022 was the fifth consecutive year in which the actress was placed at the top of celebrity culture. She began the year by finally confirming her relationship with fellow actor Tom Holland, six years after they met, and premiering the second season of Euphoria. HBO’s teen series became the second most watched in the platform’s history, second only to Game of Thrones, and in the most tweeted about series of the decade. In September, Euphoria she gave her second consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, a year after becoming the youngest woman to do so at age 25. Zendaya has spent the second half of the year focused on filming challengersthe next film by Luca Guadagnino (call me by your name), but the public has made up for the lack of news with gossip. In the summer it was rumored that she was pregnant, which she herself denied, and now it is speculated that she could have been engaged to Holland. No matter what she does, even if she doesn’t do anything, Zendaya never ceases to fascinate audiences. She is the biggest star of Generation Z.

At the age of 13, he starred in the Disney Channel series shake it up and she was already aware of the dangers of “girl prodigies”, which is why she promised that she would not end up messing it up like Miley Cyrus. She had long term plans. She explained that her goal was to be a mix of Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce and Shonda Rhimes. And she was not exaggerating: at the age of 17, Disney proposed that she star in a series called Super Detective Katy and she demanded to work as a producer to participate in the decisions. “There are other things that a girl can be besides being a singer and a dancer. She wanted KC to be a brainiac. That boys, and not just girls, would watch the series and dream of being like her,” the actress explained in an interview in Vogue.

At the age of 14, she hired her own stylist. He met Law Roach when he was a second-hand store clerk and together they devised a strategy to get noticed: Zendaya wore dresses on the red carpets that other celebrities such as Beyonce or Kylie Jenner had recently worn to appear in the “Who Did It” sections. wears better?” of the magazines. In February 2015, she attended the Oscars as, as she herself admits, “the +1 of a +1 ″. She wore a design by the recently deceased designer Vivian Westwood and dreadlocks that led to Giuliana Rancic, a commentator on the show. Fashion Police, to exclaim that when he looked at her he smelled patchouli and marijuana. Zendaya, far from bowing her head, criticized on her Instagram account – where today she accumulates 163 million followers – the racist connotations of that comment. “My father, my cousins ​​and my childhood friends all have dreadlocks. Filmmaker Ava DuVernay, writer Terry McMillan, Harvard African-American studies professor Vincent Brown, and Yale historian Heather Andrea Williams all wear dreadlocks. I decided to wear dreadlocks to the Oscars to show them in a positive context, to remind people of color that our hair is good, that it’s a symbol of beauty and strength, almost like a lion’s mane.” Days later, Mattel announced that it would make a Barbie Zendaya with that looks. In this way, the actress drew the attention of the public who did not know what it was KC Special Agent. He had not shot a single movie and was already positioned as a cultural icon.

Zendaya at the 87th Oscars ceremony held in 2015, dressed as Vivienne Westwood and with her hair in dreadlocks. Steve Granitz (Wire Image)

Zendaya studied at a majority black school, where she was the whitest, and then at a majority white school, where she was considered black. One day she straightened her hair and everyone congratulated her. She felt so strange that she asked her aunts, some of whom are black panthers, to explain the importance of hair among black women and how it has often been used to ridicule them, question their hygiene, or deny the beauty of black women. she.

And with the same inquisitive attitude he landed in Hollywood. He convinced her agent to send her to casting non-racial roles, not just characters of color (as was the case with MJ in spider-manrue in Euphoria or Chani in Dune). And once she achieved star status, she used it to educate the public about the causes she believed in. When he launched a collection with Tommy Hilfiger in 2019, he convinced the brand to include large sizes in its catwalk collection for the first time: “I’m not going to make clothes that neither my sister, nor my mother, nor my niece can wear,” he declared. .

Zendaya, on the red carpet at an event in Los Angeles in October 2010.
Zendaya, on the red carpet at an event in Los Angeles in October 2010.MARCOCCHI GIULIO/SIPA (MARCOCCHI GIULIO/SIPA /Cordon Press /Cordon Press)

Zendaya uses the networks to raise awareness about mental health. She herself has suffered from anxiety about her perfectionism, to the point of being unable to enjoy her triumphs. “I’m always afraid to do things for fear of not being the best,” she admitted in an interview with the magazine Interview. He hates free time and doesn’t know what to do while he’s not working, so he asked the creator of Euphoria Sam Levinson to write and shoot Malcolm & Marie during the covid break of the series. “I have worked every day since I was 13 years old. All my social life is on the filming set ”, she has also said.

At the beginning of 2020, she took her first vacation (a trip to Greece) and asked her assistant, who has worked with her since the days of the Disney Channel, to take her card, pay for everything and not tell her how much she was spending. so as not to stress her out. On that vacation she was accompanied by Jacob Elordi, her co-star in Euphoria, which sparked dating rumors. Many people took it as a personal betrayal: Zendaya and Tom Holland are the internet’s favorite couple even when they didn’t admit to being a couple. In September 2021, Holland’s congratulations to Zendaya on her birthday became the fifth most popular photo. I like from Instagram story: 20 million hearts. Last June, already as a public couple, Zendaya surpassed it when she returned the congratulations with a capture (“Happy birthday to the one who makes me the happiest”) that melted the internet: more than 25.7 million likes.

The actors have kept their relationship so discreet that no one knows the exact moment it began. They met in 2016, when they were both 20 years old (he is three months older than her, although from his physique and attitude everyone assumes that it is the other way around), but the first photo of them kissing is from July 2021. ” It’s strange, confusing and invasive,” Zendaya said in the magazine. G.Q.. “We both agree that when you love someone and care about that person, you want your moments to be your own.” The actress refers to the persecution of the press, but also to the insistence of fans who became obsessed with the unconfirmed relationship and pressured them on social networks to admit it. In a celebrity culture that promotes the closeness of the stars, the internet behaved as if Tom and Zendaya were their friends and the secrecy with which they protected their relationship was a game of cluelessness to decipher.

And since the courtship is official, these fans are dedicated to speculating with pregnancies and commitments. Neither of them has reacted to the rumors of her wedding, although Zendaya’s mother published a definition of the word on her Instagram last December. clickbait, which has been interpreted as a denial. For now, the actress is silent. She’s taking the biggest break of her career, until she starts shooting be my babythe biopic of the singer Ronnie Spector, and premieres the film by Guadagnino and the second part of Dune. Marry or not, this 2023 will once again be the year of Zendaya.

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