Zaya Wade, one among Harper’s Bazaar’s Icons for 2023, is set to make the world safer for trans children.
The daughter of retired NBA celebrity Dwyane Wade, Zaya, 16, has cited the unwavering love and assist of her well-known mother and father as an important a part of her coming-out story, which unfolded within the added glare of the highlight. Wade now desires to make use of that platform to make sure that different LGBTQ+ individuals of all ages really feel seen and embraced, by talking brazenly and publicly about each triumphs and challenges on her ongoing journey.
To see extra from our 2023 Icons concern, together with cowl stars Kendall Jenner, Doja Cat, and Paul Mescal, click on right here.
Turning 16 was an enormous deal for me. I’m realizing that point goes by so quick. However this 12 months, I set this aim for myself to offer extra again to my neighborhood. I’ve turn out to be extra of a public voice for my neighborhood, and I’ve been making an attempt to determine myself out and ensuring I’m comfy with who I’m as an individual. Now that I’m, I actually wish to make extra strides to assist my neighborhood in no matter manner I can.
I look again at once I first got here out, and it was scary and so private. Then once I advised the world, all of it turned this image. I used to be simply 12! However as I received older, I noticed that I’ve turn out to be part of my neighborhood in a manner that not lots of people can say they’ve.
It’s been actually particular that I’ve been capable of turn out to be this voice and determine. However on the similar time, I don’t actually sit again and take a look at it as this huge factor. That is simply me current. I got here out, and that was it. I didn’t come out with the intention to be a voice for individuals. I got here out as a result of I needed to share my fact. Now I get to be a voice for the trans neighborhood and be somebody that quite a lot of younger trans children who’ve or haven’t come out can look to. However I believe it’s greatest to only exist. I believe we will get misplaced after we begin taking a look at issues in a extremely huge manner—though it’s all huge.
Style has at all times been an extension of my true self. It’s actually a technique to silently however boldly inform the world or present the world who you might be on the within—or who you actually wish to be.
Each time I get glam and [have my] hair and make-up completed—whether or not it’s braids or my pure hair or a wig—it’s so empowering as a result of I get to decide on the best way that I, myself, get to focus on what I actually, actually imagine is gorgeous. I’m by no means making an attempt to masks something. I’m simply making an attempt to actually present how I really feel on the within.
My dad is who actually conjures up me essentially the most. Children at all times are likely to look as much as their mother and father, however not solely did I idolize him rising up, however particularly now, as I’m rising older and attending to know him and see him as an actual individual, I understand that he has performed such a necessary function in supporting me and the best way that I select to current myself to the world. He’s been so supportive and my greatest advocate. He took the time and discovered and grew. I wish to have that very same mentality going by means of something in life.
Popping out is such an enormous change. It’s arduous to navigate. We’ve all actually discovered extra about one another and the best way we will coexist and develop collectively on this loopy world, particularly within the public eye. It’s like a highlight is at all times on you. On the finish of the day, although, we’re a household, and we assist and love one another and we’re grateful.
This interview and the picture shoot had been carried out earlier than the SAG-AFTRA strike.
A model of this text seems within the September 2023 concern of Harper’s Bazaar, accessible on newsstands August 29.
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Tradition Editor
Bianca Betancourt is the tradition editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, the place she covers all issues movie, TV, music, and extra. When she’s not writing, she loves impulsively baking a batch of cookies, re-listening to the identical early-2000s pop playlist, and stalking Mariah Carey’s Twitter feed.
