Zendaya's brilliant takedown of nasty trolls resurfaces... after keyboard warriors mocked her parents' looks

Daily Mail​

18-07-2025

Zendaya 's brilliant takedown of cyber bullies targeting her parents has resurfaced one decade later.
In 2015, a Twitter troll posted a picture of the 28-year-old Euphoria actress' mother and father, Claire Stoermer and Kazembe Ajamu, branding the pair 'ugly.'
A young Zendaya, who was just 18 at the time, responded by posting a note to the social media site after a barrage of nasty keyboard warriors escalated the derogatory comments.
Addressing the haters, she wrote: 'While you're so concerned about what my parents look like, please know that these are two of the most selfless people in the world.
'They have chosen to spend their entire life not worried about trivial things such as looks and insulting people's parents on Twitter but instead became educators who have dedicated their lives to teaching, cultivating and filling young shallow mind.'
As she continued, Zendaya urged the trolls to 'please, log out, go to school, hug a teacher and read a textbook and while you're at it, go look in the mirror and know that you too are beautiful, because such hateful things only stem from internal struggles. Bless you.'
Zendaya is the only child of Claire and Kazembe, although her father has six older children from his previous relationships.
The former couple divorced when the star was a child although she previously revealed that her parents are 'still homies.'
California born Zendaya has a close bond with both of her parents, so close in fact that her dad is also her manager.
Last April, Zendaya opened up about her 'complicated feelings' about growing up in the public eye since getting cast as Rocky Blue on the Disney Channel sitcom Shake It Up.
The Oakland native, who was a two-time Emmy winner by 27, reflected on her struggles with anxiety after being put in a 'very adult position' as her family's breadwinner before becoming a legal adult.
When asked what her career goals were growing up during an interview with Vogue, the Euphoria star admitted that she finds the question a bit 'funny' as it's something that she is still trying to figure out now.
'I don't know how much of a choice I had. I have complicated feelings about kids and fame and being in the public eye, or being a child actor,' she explained.
'We've seen a lot of cases of it being detrimental.'
As an adult, she said she has found herself thinking: 'Oh, okay, wait a minute: I've only ever done what I've known, and this [acting] is all I've known.'
'I'm almost going through my angsty teenager phase now, because I didn't really have the time to do it before,' she mused.
Zendaya urged trolls to 'look in the mirror and know that you too are beautiful, because such hateful things only stem from internal struggles'
While looking back at her adolescence, Zendaya said: 'I felt like I was thrust into a very adult position: I was becoming the breadwinner of my family very early.'
'There was a lot of role-​reversal happening, and just kind of becoming grown, really,' she noted.
Additionally, she felt a lot of pressure to become 'this perfect being and be everything that everyone needs' her to be and live up to.
The pressure and expectations, still, make it difficult for her to live in the moment or, even, enjoy her current success.
'Now, when I have these moments in my career — like, my first time leading a film that's actually going to be in a theater — I feel like I shrink, and I can't enjoy all the things that are happening to me, because I'm like this,' she said while balling up her fists. 'I'm very tense.'