Zendaya is confronting the challenges that came with being a child star — and one major regret she’s had as a result.
The Dune actor, in an interview published online Tuesday for Vogue’s May issue, opened up about what it was like to be the “breadwinner” for her family at an early age.
“I don’t know how much of a choice I had,” Zendaya said. “I have complicated feelings about kids and fame and being in the public eye, or being a child actor. We’ve seen a lot of cases of it being detrimental.… And I think only now, as an adult, am I starting to go, Oh, okay, wait a minute: I’ve only ever done what I’ve known, and this is all I’ve known.”
The former Disney Channel star said that she’s “going through my angsty teenager phase now, because I didn’t really have the time to do it before.”
“I felt like I was thrust into a very adult position,” she said, explaining that she felt it was necessary to “live up to all these expectations” in childhood.
In addition to the pressure to be perfect, the Challengers actor said that she feels “very tense” when great opportunities come her way.
“I think that I carry that from being a kid and never really having an opportunity to just try shit,” she explained.
“And I wish I went to school.”
Zendaya isn’t alone in missing out on a normal school experience, as various celebrities have also expressed regret over not furthering their education or attending regular classes as a child.
Julia Roberts recently told British Vogue that although she wishes she’d pursued a higher education, she couldn’t do so because her family “didn’t have the money.”
“And I had no scholarship potential,” she told the outlet. “But as my kids have gone through the college process now, and looking for schools and talking about what they are interested in learning more about and all that, it does just fill me with a longing for that academic space.”