All we want is to fly with her.
BY NICA DOBLES
If you haven’t watched Disney Channel since you were a kid, you might not have heard of Zendaya until her feature film debut in last year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Get used to hearing her name, though: after her powerful performance in The Greatest Showman, we’re sure her star’s only going to keep rising. We’ve gushed over her co-star Zac Efron on Man Crush Monday before, so now it’s Zendaya’s turn to get some love.
Get to know Zendaya and why we love her!
She’s #KilayGoals.
She’s said that just doing her brows is enough to make her feel better, and we can see why. Whether she’s at the beach or on the red carpet, Zendaya’s brow game is always on point.
The trick? She avoids tweezing to keep them natural, but keeps them groomed regardless. She might not always go all out with the products, but her brows are always filled in and defined.
She learned trapeze and did most of her own stunts for “The Greatest Showman”.
This girl is multi-talented — she can sing, dance, act, and model, and thanks to her work in the The Greatest Showman, she’s added acrobatics to her bag of tricks.
Michael Gracey, the movie’s director, wanted to minimize the use of stunt doubles, so Zendaya had to build up a whole lot of upper body strength to pull off some of the acts you see onscreen.
She had an official Barbie created just for her.
She attended the 2015 Oscars with her hair styled in dreadlocks, prompting Fashion Police hosts to say, “I feel like she smells like patchouli oil…or weed”. Zendaya fired back against the racist remark in a statement on her Instagram:
“My wearing my hair in locs on an Oscar red carpet was to showcase them in a positive light, to remind people of color that our hair is good enough. To me locs are a symbol of strength and beauty, almost like a lion’s mane.”
To applaud her standing up for herself and for women of color, Mattel — which has been striving to create more diversity in its dolls — created the Zendaya Barbie, modeled after her entire Oscars look.
She was a producer on her own Disney show.
After her Disney debut in Shake It Up, Zendaya was offered the lead in a new show called Super Awesome Katy. She was only 17 at the time, but she negotiated a producer role before she signed on — and she got it, gaining creative control over the show. She lobbied for a change in the show’s title and her character, leading to the final product, K.C. Undercover.
The show’s finale just last week was the end of Zendaya’s Disney career, at least as an actor — she said that she’d love to come back as a producer to create more empowering roles for women.
She can pull off any look.
You’ve seen her as a pink-haired performer in The Greatest Showman and as an awkward teen in Spider-Man, but even in real life, Zendaya’s always switching up her style, from borrowed-from-the-boys to ultra glam.
She’s pulled off a gold trenchcoat, a butterfly-wing gown, and pajamas on the red carpet; she’s gone with the dreadlocks, blunt bangs, and her natural curls — and no matter what she does, she always looks fab. There really isn’t anything this girl can’t do.
Love Zendaya?
Feel free to fangirl with us in the comments section below! And while you’re at it, tell us who we should feature next!