Zendaya reflects on her evolution from ‘shy kid’ to global superstar
Zendaya reveals how creating characters became key to her success on and offscreen for W magazine's "Best Performances" issue.
She may be an Emmy-winning actress, producer and global fashion and beauty icon, but Zendaya started out as a “shy and tall” youngster with a tendency toward perfectionism.
“I was a shy kid, and I gained confidence and a sense of self when I started to audition,” she tells W magazine in its 2025 “Best Performances” issue. “I’d create my own little outfits, do my own hair and makeup. Falling into different characters helped me get out of my shell.”
It’s a tool the now 28-year-old still uses to her advantage as she continues to break out of the child star mold and make her mark in more mature roles, like 2024’s “Challengers.” The edgy role earned Zendaya a 2025 Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
“[A] reason why I love my job is it allows me the space to be less self-critical and try things because I don’t have to deal with the consequences of the character’s actions in real life,” she explains. “When I’m Rue [in HBO’s ‘Euphoria’] or when I’m Tashi [in ‘Challengers], for example, I can just be messy, let the instincts come, and not judge myself because I’m not judging them.”
As W aptly notes, Zendaya carries that ethos onto the red carpet, where, with the help of longtime collaborator Law Roach, she has become an indisputable style star known for bringing the themes of her films to fashionable fruition.
“[Thinking in character] helps. It really does, because it’s an odd thing to get up in front of people and pose in a crazy outfit,” she admits. “For me, if I create a character, it makes it feel less strange.
Sharing the same astrological sign as Beyoncé, who once adorned her childhood walls, Zendaya points out the Virgo characteristics that have arguably been both a blessing and a curse in building her own superstardom. “[We are] controlling, perfectionists, self-critical, loyal, loving,” she notes. “Controlling in the sense of like, ‘It’s fine, I’ll just do it myself. You don’t need to help me. I can do it. It’s fine.’
“I actually got in trouble in class when I was a kid because it would be group projects and I would do all the work,” she continues. I was like, ‘You guys are going to mess it up, so don’t worry, I’ll do everything.'”
As Zendaya admits, that type of pressure, even self-imposed, can take its toll, especially on a now in-demand A-lister.
“I have this joke that if my nail breaks, I break,” she shares. “If my nail chips or if I’m on the verge of losing it, I’m thinking, I can’t have my nail break because then I know I’m about to have a meltdown. It usually lines up with me being exhausted.”
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