Shake It Up , Spider-Man: Homecoming , Spider-Man: Far From Home , Euphoria , and The Greatest Showman star, Zendaya AKA Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman, is easily one of the most well-liked stars right now.
She is an absolute delight and we cannot get enough of her!
Here are some little-known facts about her that fans most likely didn’t know!
1. She claimed that she watches *Harry Potter* at least once a day.
In an interview with InStyle , when asked what her self-care routine looks like, Zendaya replied:
“People say I’m crazy, but I watch ‘Harry Potter,’ like, once a day. It’s just calming to me, so that’s my thing. People are like, ‘Oh my god, ‘Harry Potter’ again?’ I say, ‘Don’t come over to my house if you don’t want to watch it, because it’s going to be on.'”
2. Channing Tatum is her celebrity crush.
Like many of us, Zendaya’s celebrity crush is, understandably, Magic Mike star, Channing Tatum.
In an interview with HuffPost Live , she revealed that what she loves most about him is that he can act and dance.
3. She had to re-do kindergarten because she was so shy.
While Zendaya eventually grew up to have a very charming and charismatic personality, it wasn’t always like that!
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When she was in kindergarten, she was painfully shy. She ended up doing a victory lap to catch up socially with her peers .
4. She never had to have her wisdom teeth removed.
After a visit to her dentist when she was a kid, she learned that she was born with one less tooth than the average person in her bottom row.
So her dentist let her know that removing her wisdom teeth wouldn’t be necessary, as there was more than enough room for them.
5. Before becoming an actor, she wanted to be a teacher.
In an interview with Teen Vogue , she revealed that both of her parents had careers in education, and it always inspired her.
“It instilled within me a true appreciation of and devotion to the importance of education,” she said. “If I wasn’t in entertainment, I’d be a teacher in a heartbeat — guaranteed!”
6. She went to see *Spider-Man* on her first ever date.
Prior to actually joining the Marvel universe in Spider-Man: Homecoming , Zendaya’s first date was actually at the movie theater, where she and her date went to watch one of the Spider-Man flicks .
“I was obsessed with it immediately … I’ve always kind of related to Spider-Man. I think a lot of people do because he’s a real person,” she told *Good Morning America*.
“He’s not just the superhero all the time. He is, at the end of the day, Peter Parker, who is a 15-year-old kid, which we all can relate to.”
7. She is glad that she was able to break away from being pigeonholed as a Disney star.
“I think for me I had a very clear vision of what I wanted to do. I had a very good sense of self and I think I also took a lot of lessons just from being in the industry for so long,” she told Insider .
She credits her seamless departure from Disney to staying out of the spotlight as much as possible and avoiding any scandals.
“I’d rather just walk the walk [laughs],” she continued.
“Which I think is why I haven’t been as much on social media. I’m just letting the work do what the work does .”
Unlike many of her Disney peers who have struggled to shake their childlike identities.
8. In *Euphoria*, it was her idea to make Rue’s hoodie her late father’s hoodie, based on a personal experience she had when her grandfather passed away.
“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,” she told Allure .
“When I was 11, my grandfather passed, and we had all his old clothes,” she says. “I thought it would be cool if we made [it clear that] the hoodie was Rue’s [late] dad’s hoodie,” she added.
“[I wanted to capture] that attachment that you have to inanimate objects when somebody passes. “
9. She admitted that she had a hard time relating to her character in *Euphoria* at first.
“Obviously, there’s not much in my own experience of being a teen that I could draw on, especially when it comes to struggling with addiction,” she told Vogue .
Thankfully, however, she was able to connect with Rue on a different level and bring the character to life (flawlessly if I might add).
10. She doesn’t regret any former beauty trends she participated in.
“You’ve just got to own it, you know? Though I’m thankful I was never allowed to get my eyebrows done when thin brows were poppin’. Once I started caring about mine, I always wanted them to be big,” she told InStyle .
“I remember the day before seventh grade started, I was going to get my brows done. I left the place with one eyebrow more square and one more round. They looked superthin, and my heart was broken. I cried,” she went on.
“Which is so dramatic, but it was the day before seventh grade. That’s a big deal! And I was pissed because my 13th birthday was coming up.”
11. She used to be a backup dancer for Selena Gomez.
Before landing her breakout Disney role that put her on the map, when she was 12 years old, she was a backup dancer for Selena Gomez in a Sears commercial.
Not too shabby for a first job !
