Zendaya is a superstar who loves to give back. The young star talks about her passion for education, instilled in her by her parents, and speaks on the importance of fighting against bullying in her latest interview with New You. Check out what Miss Coleman had to say below!
The importance of being kind
“It is very important because I have a lot of young people on Instagram and Twitter who are looking to me for guidance and inspiration. I feel responsible to be real with them, honest with them, and inspire and help them in any way that I can while still learning and figuring out who I am.”
Lessons learned from bullies
“I was made fun of but it didn’t bother me very much because I was very comfortable in who I was. I was taught as a young child by my parents and family to love myself. And it’s the same today—there are certain things that don’t bother me. I just focus on being a good person. I was always very aware of the world and I was never sheltered from the negative things that were out there. I feel that if you shelter your kids from everything, one day they are going to be out in the world on their own and they are going to have to figure it out. You can’t give them a test if you never taught them anything that’s on the test. They’re going to fail. You have to prepare people and sometimes that’s just being honest with them and letting them know things sooner.”
On education
“Education is something that we often take for granted because we have it at our disposal, but there are people—women, children, men—in the world who don’t have access to education, and it’s powerful. If you talk about slavery, the whole point of being able to control people’s minds, to not allow them to succeed, was because they were denied education. I am very lucky to have parents who pushed me to learn and broaden my horizons. I’m lucky to have parents who are teachers.”
Zendaya brings the whole package
“I want to promote to young people that it’s okay to be a good citizen. It’s okay to learn. It’s cool to be knowledgeable, to know what’s going on in your country and your world. To form opinions and to talk about it, have discussions and be respectful. I’m trying to make that the new cool.”
Read Miss Coleman’s full interview here.
Photo: New You
