Member Since: 8/19/2013
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Lately, her days are pretty jam-packed. The Northern California native he has been making a name for herself ever since 2009 when she landed a role on the Disney Channel series Shake It Up opposite Belle Thorne. Less than five years later, Zendaya (who was born Zendaya Coleman) has already released an advice book for tweens called Between U And Me as well as a self-titled debut album that mined pop and R&B influences with great success. (Zendaya recently went platinum, a feat in a post-Spotify world.) She was the youngest person to appear on Dancing With The Stars (she was a runner-up) and is currently working on a new Disney sitcom. Yet, as fast-paced as her own life is, on a recent visit to New York City, Zendaya admits that she doesn't think she could survive in The City That Never Sleeps. “I could see myself being here for a month, tops,” laughs Zendaya. “I would spend way too much money. My sleeping pattern would be all messed up. There's just so much available! Anytime I was hungry, I could go out and eat. At home, things close. You have to go to sleep.”
Home now means Los Angeles, Calif., where she lives with her family and Midnight, her giant Schnauzer, but for Zendaya it all began in Oakland, a city that is changing like the star herself. “It's a very inspiring place,” she declares. “It has a bad reputation but honestly, a lot of creative people come out of there.” As a child, Zendaya immersed herself in Oakland's artistic communities: she spent three years performing with the youth dance troupe Future Shock Oakland, honing skills that would later come of use in her own music career, and she was a regular fixture at the nearby California Shakespeare Theater where her mother worked as a house manager and trained conservatory students.
Zendaya isn't the first Disney star to fight for a seat at the table — Raven-Symoné, a woman whom the young actress looks up to, also produced her own Disney Channel series, That's So Raven. “I look to her comedically,” Zendaya says of her friend and mentor. “I think she is so funny and that, to this day, she had the best Disney show that was on air. When I met her, she was a genuinely kind person and that's what you want to see: someone who has grown up as a young star but still has a heart of gold and is very sweet. That's the most important thing.” When asked about the controversy surrounding Raven-Symoné's recent interview with Oprah in which the actress claimed to be “American, not African-American,” Zendaya, herself half-Black, seems unperturbed. “She's grown; she can say whatever she wants. Everyone has an opinion. “'Opinions are like buttholes," she says. "Everyone has one and everyone thinks everyone else's stinks. Let people live.”
Surely she wishes people would've let her live when she was recently given the chance to pay homage to one of her heroes. The Internet exploded with criticism after Zendaya was cast as the lead in Lifetime's Aaliyah biopic, a role she later backed out of due to concerns of the quality of the film's production. One of the loudest critiques was that Zendaya wasn't “black enough” to portray the late R&B singer. Rather than hurtful, she found the assessments just strange and ignorant. “It doesn't make sense,” she says. “Here's how I put it: the first African-American President of the United States is half-black. So is he not the first black president? Is he just the first half-black president? Do we take that credit away from him? No. Whoever is supposed to play [Aaliyah] — whether they are half-Asian or whatever — it's not about that. It's about doing it with respect and integrity.”
Yet the young star doesn't let any ill-will get her down: “It's just irrelevant. I have so much to be thankful for — why am I going to let some random person in Idaho kill my vibe?” Zendaya has much more to do: a series to lead and produce, a second album for which she is trying to woo Drake (“He has to know I'm obsessed with him,” she laughs), charitable endeavors, and soon possibly a future project with fashion. “2015 is about showing my work, showing the things I can do, and continuing to have fun in the process, “ she says. “As much as I do, I actually love it. As long as I'm happy while I'm doing it, I'm going to keep doing it for a long time.”
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