Zendaya Gone Viral: Secrets of a Social Media Queen

When Zendaya isn't dominating the Disney networks or entering the Marvel Universe she's in another realm of sorts: Social Media. It's here the actress has become what many consider the voice of the millennials. The 19-year-old speaks out, rather eloquently, on everything from social justice and female empowerment to fashion and beauty. Her wisdom (and straight-up skills) in the latter has even earned her an official spokesperson role for not one—but two—major beauty brands: CoverGirl and CHI Hair Care.

But the main reason she's got 31 million Instagram followers, nearly 7 million Twitter peeps and what we're going to assume is a few million Snapchat friends is because she's genuine. She's what we all hope to be online—sage, confident, sassy, real.
In a world of filters and facetuning, the star is known for her makeup free selfies and bare face Snapchats. Not that she doesn't enjoy eye art or wig play—she does, big time—but she's open about who she is and who she's not and isn't trying to fool us with Hollywood hype.

Elite Images / AKM-GSI

Plus, it's not just outer beauty that she slays—she's masterful at shutting down haters with a one-liner, when needed.
Oh, and one other thing and this is key: She's hella funny. Her "mood" posts are all of us. Z's Snapchat is pure comedy and elsewhere her meme and GIF game rivals that of @Daquan.
So really, it's easy to see why she became such a social media Phenom. It's also quite obvious why our convo quickly turned to her online life when caught up with the star at her CHI Hair Care event in Hollywood—which, yes she was Snapping from.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Tweets to Date: 56.4K
Tumblr Mentions in 2016: 2.4 million
Most Liked Instagram: 1.1 double-taps (for each of the below selfies)

Instagram

You wake up, roll over to grab your phone and check…?The first thing I check is my text messages.
Of all the social media platforms, which is your favorite? Snapchat, because it's the most natural and unfiltered.

Snapchat

Where do you find beauty inspiration on social media?Honestly, I just go on the explorer page on Instagram and stalk people's pages randomly. I really just like accounts that show people how to style and take care of their natural hair.

Instagram

Speaking of hair care, you've talked about doing makeup tutorials but would you ever do hair how-tos?Absolutely. I think it's very important for women, especially with curly hair, to learn and be comfortable wearing natural healthy hair styles.
And what's the first hairdo you truly mastered and felt comfortable doing by yourself?A good smooth, slick ponytail or bun was probably one of the first hairdos that I was really able to do on my own.

Getty Images; Instagram

OK, back to your world (wide web) domination: Do you have a motto when it comes to dealing with trolls?Dealing with who...?

Snapchat

There are quite a lot of gifs/memes of you online. Any favorites?My favorite would have to be the ones of me when I had a mullet.

Getty Images

What emojis do you use the most?I definitely use the laughing face emoji the most.

OK, keep it real: Do you do have any help at all with social or is it just you?It really is just me.

Twitter