Don't Tell Zendaya She Can't Do It All — It Makes Her Mad

Updated on 11/23/2019 at 11:30 AM

Saying it's "Zendaya's year" has become somewhat of an annual tradition. But 2019 has really been Zendaya's year. She's helped fight a supervillain in Spider-Man: Far From Home, addressed important topics, such as addiction and identity, on Euphoria, and returned to music with the bona-fide banger "All For Us" alongside singer Labrinth. Oh, and she dominated the fashion scene with her size-inclusive Tommy x Zendaya line and continued to promote social justice.

The 23-year-old star refuses to be limited, as she noted in Allure's December/January 2020 issue. Opening up about her hustle-and-grind mentality, forming a bond with fans, and standing up for underrepresented groups, Zendaya gave the magazine a look into her life and career trajectory. Read ahead to see some of her best quotes from the interview.

On why she doesn't like the saying, "You can't do it all": "It makes me mad. I don't like the idea that you have to box yourself in or stay in one lane. Why wouldn't I want to try to make the most of my talents and my gifts while I can?"

On her relationship with fans: "I think my fans pretty much understand me. They know I don't leave my house, they know that I'm lazy, they know that I'm pretty open but also pretty private. I think we have, in a weird way, a pretty close relationship. My fans get me for sure."

On taking a stand against social injustice: "I want to be a part of the change. It's important that creatives of all races, if they have an opportunity or platform, use it to make room for other people."

On how young people can avoid feeling overwhelmed by injustice: "There's literally injustice happening every second. It's intense and it's overwhelming, and I think a lot of young people are feeling that. But what do we do about it? All I can say is try to find a balance between doing the work and still not letting it destroy you as a person and destroy your hope and faith in humanity. It's allowing yourself to be angry enough to want to be motivated to do something, but not to where it breaks you down."

On her debut Tommy x Zendaya show last Spring: "It was a celebration of the women who opened the door for me. Without what these women did in this fashion landscape, without Beverly Johnson, the first black woman to have a [American] Vogue cover, my Vogue cover doesn't exist. It's saying thank you, and it's also putting it in our minds that that's what we have to continue to do. That's the only way that doors are going to continue to be open — if we keep inviting people that look like us, and other people who don't look like us, to come through the door."

On being motivated by the diversity of body types in her family for her Tommy x Zendaya collaborations: "That was my thing — I'm not going to make clothes my sister or my niece or any of the women in my family can't wear. A lot of the clothes were for tall people too. For my mom, this is the first time that she can wear pants and not get them altered — she's six feet four."

On the difference between musical fame and Hollywood fame: "I still love making music, and I still get to do it through acting a lot of times, and being able to work on the finale song for Euphoria was fun. There's a layer of personal life that I think actors get that music artists don't. They have no character to hide behind, so they have to be very open. [As actors] we get a little bit of a separation."

On how her grandfather inspired Rue's hoodie in Euphoria: "It was written in the script that Rue had this big hoodie. You can tell when she's having a good day or feels good because her hoodie is not covering her entirely, and then when she's not feeling it, she's basically hiding in this giant hoodie. When I was 11, my grandfather passed, and we had all his old clothes. I thought it would be cool if we made [it clear that] the hoodie was Rue's [late] dad's hoodie. [I wanted to capture] that attachment that you have to inanimate objects when somebody passes."