Zendaya has become such a ubiquitous queen of Hollywood's A-list that it can be hard to remember she was once a cute li'l tween on the Disney channel.
Fans recently got a reminder when a clip of her Disney days resurfaced, and people are finding it hilariously relatable. The moment happened on the red carpet for the 2011 premiere of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, the pop star's 2011 documentary.
In the clip, Zendaya, who was just 14 at the time, gives a staged laugh that probably looked great in photos but is downright awkward to watch in action—and people online have found it instantly relatable.
The clip has now become a meme 15 years after Zendaya was working on the Disney sitcom Shake It Up because it's a pretty perfect visual representation of those awkward moments when we're just kind of smiling and nodding.
Or when we need to express ironic silliness about something dead-serious, as one X user did.
Along with the hilariously awkward clip of Zendaya shrugging and smiling, they wrote:
"My therapist said cutting people off isn’t healthy"
"Lowkey she’s next"
Yep, pretty much the perfect gif for those moments when you need to smile brightly while cutting someone down to size!
The gif went pretty much instantly viral as people found more and more perfect uses for it, like those moments when you didn't hear what someone said and just laugh and go along with it.
Or those moments when you have to force interaction with someone you hardly know in order to be polite.
Or perhaps the most clever of all, someone imagined that the Zendaya gif is how Netflix feels when it does that thing where it suggests a movie to you that isn't even on the app. Gotcha!
Yep, with the 2011 Zendaya clip firmly viral, a whole new meme has been invented, with increasingly hilarious results.
Oh, Zendaya. Never mind The Odyssey and Spider Man: Brand New Day. Z's an icon when she's not even trying.
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