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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Lifestyle
Maddy Mussen

Zendaya: how the Challengers star went from painfully shy child to this generation's leading lady

Once upon a time, the Disney channel was something of a boot camp for future megastars. It felt like virtually every Noughties icon got their start there. Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Lindsay Lohan, Zac Efron, Shia LaBeouf, the list goes on.

But there was a good while when it felt like the Disney machine had stopped spitting out fresh A-listers. Until now, that is. Alongside the likes of Sabrina Carpenter and Keke Palmer, a new Disney queen is taking centre stage. In fact, she may just be *the* leading lady of her generation. And like Britney before her, she’s already a mononym: Zendaya.

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