Zaya Wade has the internet buzzing!
Dwyane Wade’s 15-year-old baby girl showed off a completely new look. We typically see her with her natural Afro or braids, but now she’s switching it up. Zaya revealed a beautiful portrait photo, rocking a half-up and half-down hair style. In the caption, she wrote, “dreams becoming reality.” Take a look:
Her dad, one of her biggest supporters, replied in the comment section reminding her she’s shining bright like a diamond, he wrote three crystal emojis. Rapper Lil Nas X said, “omg chewed.” Ryan Destiny chimed in and said, “beauty.”
A fan wrote, “elegance. The photo definition,” and someone else said, “as you should, Zaya.”
Over the spring, Zaya did a joint interview with her stepmother Gabrielle Union for the Dove Self-Esteem Project. During the conversation, Zaya, who was 14 at the time, opened up about how she has been impacted by “detrimental beauty advice online.” For example, Zaya said she dealt with hateful comments about her hair. She said,
“As a trans person, once I came out, there was a lot of hateful comments about how I should grow my hair out long or fit into a certain version of femininity, even though that’s not true at all. That kind of advice is just trying to break you, but don’t let it.”
Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle have been Zaya’s number-one cheerleaders since day one. During the interview, Gab said she and her husband “stress the value of internal beauty.” Gabrielle said,
“You can be a ‘stunner’ or ‘classically beautiful person,’ but if your soul is rotten, you are not very beautiful at all.” The actress continued, “We try to stress character, compassion, love, acceptance, and joy. That hopefully radiates from the inside out. When it comes to how she moves through the world, we try to stress there is no one way to be a woman or to be feminine.” In addition, “We talk to her about resisting anti-Blackness and not centering Eurocentric beauty ideals.”
In 2020, Dwyane appeared on The Ellen Show and revealed his daughter’s truth. Zaya was born a male, Zion, but at 12 years old, she came out as transgender. During the show, the former NBA star said he showers his child with love and will refer to her as Zaya as she asked.
Zaya is showing the world; she’s THAT GIRL!