Zendaya just got candid about starting her own family

“I don't necessarily want my kids to have to deal with this.”

Zendaya is gearing up for the release of Challengers with not one but two Vogue covers. Unveiled on April 9, 2024, the star simultaneously graces the top pages of both the American and British editions of the magazine's May 2024 issue – and opening up about the pressures of childhood fame, her relationship with boyfriend Tom Holland, and her plans to start a family in the accompanying interview.

In the new interview, Zendaya got candid about stepping into the shoes of Tashi Duncan for Challengers, which marks the first time she plays a fully-fledged adult — and a mum at that — on screen. While she admitted the experience was "refreshing," she said it was "also kind of scary" since she was wary that audiences would not “buy [her] as [her] own age, or maybe a little bit older.”

Niko Tavernise / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures

Zendaya, who at the time of writing is 27, went on to say that she has "friends that have kids, or are having kids," and admitted that she, too, would like to start a family eventually — though, for now, she is happy being an aunt to the offspring of her five half-siblings.

As much as she wants to start her own family in the future, Zendaya is already worried about how her career choices will affect her future kids. "I don't necessarily want my kids to have to deal with [the pressures of being a public figure]," she admitted to Vogue. “And what does my future look like? Am I going to be a public-facing person forever?”

The actor further admitted she has "complicated feelings about kids and fame and being in the public eye," which stem from her own experience as a child actor. "We've seen a lot of cases of it being detrimental… And I think only now, as an adult, am I starting to go, 'Oh, OK, wait a minute: I've only ever done what I've known, and this is all I've known,'" she elaborated.

“I'm almost going through my angsty teenager phase now, because I didn't really have the time to do it before," Zendaya continued. I felt like I was thrust into a very adult position: I was becoming the breadwinner of my family very early, and there was a lot of role-reversal happening, and just kind of becoming grown, really.”

In hindsight, she revealed she feels many of her personal and professional insecurities could be traced back to stepping into the limelight at a young age, something she shares with her current partner, Tom Holland.

"We were both very, very young, but my career was already kind of going, and his changed overnight," Zendaya said of her now-boyfriend. "One day you're a kid, and you're at the pub with your friends, and then the next day you're Spider-Man… I definitely watched his life kind of change in front of him. But he handled it really beautifully."

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ICYMI: before landing the titular role on 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming, where he met Zendaya, Tom Holland got his start in the West End, the British version of Broadway, as a young Billy Elliot. The actor is set to make his West End return later this year in a new production of Romeo & Juliet and Zendaya is already planning on trying to go "see as many shows as I possibly can.

While on the subject of Holland, Zendaya also took the chance to speak about her concerns around privacy as a whole, recalling the couple's viral Louvre date from late 2022. "You just kind of get used to the fact that, 'Oh, I'm also one of these art pieces you're going to take a picture of.' I just gotta be totally cool with it and just live my life," she said.

However, Zendaya also admitted she's gotten better at setting boundaries now, despite fearing long-time fans would stop supporting her. "I think growing up, I always felt like when someone asks for a picture, I have to do it, all the time. You have to say yes, because you just need to be grateful that you're here," the star explained. "And while I still feel that way, I also have learned that I can say no, and I can say kindly that I'm having a day off, or I'm just trying to be myself today, and I don't actually have to perform all the time."

Ultimately, Zendaya admitted she would just like to "make things and pop out when I need to pop out, and then have a safe and protected life with my family," without worrying that she is “not delivering something all the time, or not giving all the time, that everything's going to go away.”

This article originally appeared in TEEN VOGUE.