The actress, musician, dancer and designer shares her day
The actress, musician, dancer and designer shares her day
8:00AM I am usually one to sleep in, but lately I’ve been getting up pretty early. I do not hop right out of bed, though. I’m just not one of those people; I’m definitely a lie-around type. I’ll debate for a good few minutes whether I want to get up or try to sleep for another 10 minutes. If I’m being a little more of a diva, I’ll lie around for a full two hours. It depends on how I feel. You have all of your notifications on your phone when you wake up—texts, that kind of stuff —so I’ll look at that, or check my calendar to see what the heck I’m doing that day because, to be honest, I usually don’t know what I’m doing.
8:45AM I just bought my first house, in Los Angeles, and I have a lot of people who live there. They’re all family: One of my sisters, my niece, and my cousins, who are both older than me. I love having people around me; I don’t like being in a big house by myself. When you have your own place, you really get to control the energy and what comes in and out of it to protect your own space. It’s really nice because I don’t let any negative vibes in my front door. If you’re having a bad day or if you have an attitude, don’t come to my house. I actually wake up and I’m happy, the sun is shining, and I’ll knock on my niece’s door and be like, “Good morning, I love you.” It’s great.
9:00AM I am 100 percent a shower person. I don’t understand how people can take baths all the time. First of all, it feels like soup, and, second, it’s just not convenient. You have to take a shower after you take a bath anyway! After a shower I wash my face with a cleanser and follow up with toner, moisturiser and lip balm. If you have a good lip balm, you can use it as a highlighter for your cheeks as well. It’s a double whammy. Another important thing is good mascara. I use CoverGirl Fibers mascara. There’s something about having nice eyelashes that makes you feel good.
10:00AM At some point my assistant will try to force me to eat something. I’ve never been a breakfast person. I love breakfast food—just not at breakfast time— but it must have some Nutella on it: Pancakes, berries and Nutella. If I don’t have a lot of time, I’ll just eat and focus on getting dressed. In many ways, I have different facets of my life and lifestyle and what I do, and I think that is reflected in my clothing brand, Daya. It’s a way of hitting all those points of who I am. On a day-to-day basis, what I wear depends on how lazy I am. Ninety-nine percent of the time I wear sweatpants, which is why I have so many sweats and jumpsuits in my collection.
12:00PM The best part of my job is that I work everywhere. That’s the great thing about technology and having a phone and being able to communicate. I can have a meeting from my car, from my room, from the set, from dressing rooms—literally anywhere. That said, I only have one phone. I haven’t gotten to that level of Hollywood where I have one for business and one for personal. It’s also important to have a great assistant. That’s the only way anything gets done, because I have someone scheduling it all for me. If I’m working on set all day, maybe I’ll have a lunch break when I can have a phone meeting about the clothing line, and when I get off from shooting I can go to the recording studio. It’s about fitting it in whenever I can.
1:30PM It’s bad but because I work so much, sometimes I forget to eat. I snack throughout the day, though, especially if I’m on set where there is craft service. My go-to is a cup of noodles with hot sauce. I know it’s bad for me. People are like, “Zendaya, it’s high in sodium!” but it’s what I want to eat. I don’t drink coffee; it doesn’t do anything for me. I don’t drink energy drinks or soda, either. And I hate water. I’m a juice drinker but not fancy-people juice. Like Tropicana or lemonade—not fancy.
3:00PM Most people know me because I’m outspoken and I say what I have to say, but it’s one thing to talk. I can’t promote self-love and body empowerment, and not have a clothing line that reflects that. My point was to make Daya more than fashion. In many ways, designing is very similar to making music. It all falls under having a vision and trying to execute that vision.
6:00PM I don’t cook. I think I could cook—I can do anything I put my mind to, so I could cook. I just (a) don’t like following directions, and I’m (b) too lazy. I use Postmates (a delivery service) to order food. I can have anything I want; that’s the beauty of ordering food. If I’m having my favourite meal, I’ll just skip right to ice cream. In fact, I get in trouble with my assistant a lot—he says I shouldn’t do that. I usually try to ask everyone in the house what they want, but the final decision is mine. If I want Chick-fil-A, you guys are going to have Chick-fil-A. I will order something for you, but it will be from where I want.
7:30PM I live with people who understand boundaries because they’re all my family and we’re pretty close. We’re all young. We have our own things going on. They have their jobs, I have my jobs. I’m one of those people who doesn’t like to be alone. Do you know what I mean? I like to have the option of being around somebody. What’s sad, though, is that I’ve been living in New York for a movie shoot and I haven’t had time to decorate my house. It is literally empty—I have this big, beautiful house and no furniture. My bed is on the floor. I have a couch and a bed, and that’s pretty much it, so we end up sitting on the island in my kitchen or on my bed.
9:00PM My little ritual before bed is taking my makeup off , washing my face, and brushing my teeth. I usually take another shower at night because I don’t like getting into bed with the day on me. That said, there is the occasional night where I go to sleep in my clothes. Recently I’ve been an old lady and gone to bed early. It’s not who I am, but it’s been happening to me. I’ve been trying to find shows to binge-watch, but it’s hard. What I’ve basically done is gone through Netflix and found all the shows my parents used to watch when I was a kid but I wasn’t old enough to see, like Weeds and Shameless. I’ll put one of them on and fall asleep, so when I wake up it’s gone throughout the night and is on, like, season four.
