Zendaya

The obvious answer is that she has the best PR team in Hollywood. But it goes beyond that. The first time you probably heard of Zendaya was a little over a year ago, when she found herself in a feud with Giuliana Rancic of E!’s Fashion Police. If your finger is not on the pulse of all things celebrity gossip at all times, let me catch you up. Zendaya was at the 2015 Oscars for reasons that I can’t understand other than the fact that the aforementioned PR team is really well connected. Zendaya, who is half-black and half-white, wore her hair in dreadlocks. She looked great because part of Zendaya’s thing is that she is very, very pretty. The day after the show Rancic went on Fashion Police and said that Zendaya probably smelled like “patchouli oil” and “weed.”

Outside of the fact that Rancic said that about an eighteen-year-old girl, this was the microaggression to end all microaggressions. And the way Zendaya responded is the actual reason why she is so famous. The teen responded with an Instagram post that called out the comments as racially insensitive, writing, “My wearing my hair in lovs on an Oscar red carpet was to showcase them in a positive light, to remind people of color that our hair is good enough.” Boom. That’s why we all know who Zendaya is. That’s why she’s on the cover of W Magazine with Willow Smith and Kiernan Shipka being dubbed “Next in Line.” Zendaya is the posterchild for a new brand of young star who is attractive, at least moderately talented, and most importantly: woke.

Not to sound like an old woman raving at the clouds, but when I was a tween none of our tween starlets were socially conscious. Now there are, um… Is there a term yet for the people who are younger than millennials? The ones who don’t remember what dial-up sounds like at all? Anyway, those kids are growing up with people like Zendaya, Willow and Jaden Smith and Amandla Stenberg, who aren’t so much putting out catchy singles and making corny movies as much as they are speaking out on important issues. The Smith siblings defy expectation all the time, Jaden as the new face of Louis Vuitton’s womanswear line and Willow for believing that time doesn’t exist. Stenberg, who is seventeen and coming to NYU in the fall, recently came out as bisexual and is constantly speaking out as a part of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

The obvious answer is that she has the best PR team in Hollywood. But it goes beyond that. The first time you probably heard of Zendaya was a little over a year ago, when she found herself in a feud with Giuliana Rancic of E!’s Fashion Police. If your finger is not on the pulse of all things celebrity gossip at all times, let me catch you up. Zendaya was at the 2015 Oscars for reasons that I can’t understand other than the fact that the aforementioned PR team is really well connected. Zendaya, who is half-black and half-white, wore her hair in dreadlocks. She looked great because part of Zendaya’s thing is that she is very, very pretty. The day after the show Rancic went on Fashion Police and said that Zendaya probably smelled like “patchouli oil” and “weed.”

Outside of the fact that Rancic said that about an eighteen-year-old girl, this was the microaggression to end all microaggressions. And the way Zendaya responded is the actual reason why she is so famous. The teen responded with an Instagram post that called out the comments as racially insensitive, writing, “My wearing my hair in lovs on an Oscar red carpet was to showcase them in a positive light, to remind people of color that our hair is good enough.” Boom. That’s why we all know who Zendaya is. That’s why she’s on the cover of W Magazine with Willow Smith and Kiernan Shipka being dubbed “Next in Line.” Zendaya is the posterchild for a new brand of young star who is attractive, at least moderately talented, and most importantly: woke.

Not to sound like an old woman raving at the clouds, but when I was a tween none of our tween starlets were socially conscious. Now there are, um… Is there a term yet for the people who are younger than millennials? The ones who don’t remember what dial-up sounds like at all? Anyway, those kids are growing up with people like Zendaya, Willow and Jaden Smith and Amandla Stenberg, who aren’t so much putting out catchy singles and making corny movies as much as they are speaking out on important issues. The Smith siblings defy expectation all the time, Jaden as the new face of Louis Vuitton’s womanswear line and Willow for believing that time doesn’t exist. Stenberg, who is seventeen and coming to NYU in the fall, recently came out as bisexual and is constantly speaking out as a part of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.