At just 21-years old, Actress Zendaya Coleman has gone from being a Disney princess to be a vocal social activist who is not afraid to use her voice. She is the Cover Star of Marie Claire Magazine’s September Issue. Photographed by Thomas Whiteside and interviewed by Janet Mock, see all of her amazing shots as you scroll.
“As a black woman, as a light-skinned black woman, it’s important that I’m using my privilege, my platform, to show you how much beauty there is in the African-American community,” she said at this year’s Beautycon in New York. “I am Hollywood’s, I guess you could say, acceptable version of a black girl, and that needs to change. We’re vastly too beautiful and too interesting for me to be the only representation of that. What I’m saying—it’s about creating those opportunities. Sometimes you have to create those paths. And that’s with anything: Hollywood, art, whatever.”
Credits: Marie Claire Magazine