We have had a lot of inspirational people in 2022, but in my opinion someone that really influenced me this year was Zendaya Coleman. Zendaya is a very inspiring woman and I feel like she has the most powerful voice of our generation. She started her career at a very young age, but her fame didn’t stop there like most of the young disney stars. She began to strive on as the years went on. 

Like I said, Zendaya started her lavishing career at the young age of 14. She starred in the show “Shake it up” that was loved by many along with the show “K.C. Undercover” She doesn’t only have an acting career but a singing career too, alongside modeling. At just 26 years old she became the first black woman to win an Emmy award for her drama series and her role as Rue, the main character of  hit HBO max TV show Euphoria.

I mainly picked Zendaya for her outstanding role in Euphoria, season two especially, because it came out this past January . In season one her acting was outstanding as usual, but I’m going to be focusing on season two because I feel like it sparked more with the audience.

The whole storyline of Euphoria is about a young girl who struggles with a drug addiction after losing her father. Drug addictions are something serious that find many people and the habit usually picks up when you are in your teens. This causes a lot of teens to lose their life and this isn’t really talked about a lot, but in the show they showed very well what it’s like going through a drug addiction.

They showed tough topics and scenes where the main character Rue overdosed and almost died. Her own sister found her in one of her attempts, they also showed Rue trying to get help but as they showed in the show it’s never that easy to stop an addiction once it starts and has gone on for a while. Many just think it’s that simple to come out of, so I’m glad they showed the reality.

Zendaya was the best person to choose for this role because no one else could have portrayed the real emotions of someone suffering with this better than her. It also isn’t easy to take on a role like this because you really have to put yourself in the shoes of a person who goes through a drug addiction and usually when an actor takes on harder and more complex roles like this it can mess up their mental health so I feel like she was very brave for her portrayal .  Since the rise of season two a lot of young adults have come forward and tried to get help with their addiction. 

Zendaya stated herself that her main wish for Euphoria was that “it could help heal people,” which it did help some people and it was successful. I myself have never really looked into drug addictions and how serious it was, but her acting and the way she portrayed her role showed me a different side. Moving forward  I want others to know that they aren’t alone and there’s always someone out there willing to help.