Zendaya Admits She Has a 'Complicated Relationship' with 'Child Acting' After Rising to Fame at 14: 'I've Seen It Be Detrimental'

After nearly two decades of working in the entertainment industry (before even turning 30), Zendaya has some strong opinions on children becoming stars.

The actress, 28, scored her big break on Disney Channel's Shake It Up when she was just 14 years old after working as a model and dancer, and her own experiences have given her a "complicated relationship with the idea of child acting."

"I’ve seen it be detrimental to people," she told The Hollywood Reporter for this year's Actress Roundtable, which featured her in conversation with Angelina Jolie, Mikey Madison, Tilda Swinton, Zoe Saldaña and Demi Moore.

Related: A Look Back at Zendaya's Incredible Career (So Far)

"I wouldn’t change it, but there are things that I wish I lived out privately, you know?" she continued, referring to her own tenure in the spotlight after she spent three years on Shake It Up with Bella Thorne. "Because you’re figuring out who you are in front of the world. And you’re like, 'I’m trying to do this right. I want to make everyone happy, but I don’t really know who I am yet. I have no idea what I’m doing.'"

Still, she said she's "so grateful" for how her career "turned out" given how early on she started.

After Shake It Up concluded in 2013, Zendaya went on to star in several other Disney Channel projects, including a spy series, K.C. Undercover, from 2015 to 2018. She then pivoted to movies, starring in The Greatest Showman and beginning her long-running role as MJ in Spider-Man alongside Tom Holland.

Now, with two Dune films and Challengers under her belt (as well as the long-awaited third season of Euphoria in the pipeline), the actress admitted that years of being busy means she's still "figuring out" who she is outside of the cameras.

"What other than work brings me joy? For me, it’s been about trying new things, as stupid as it sounds, like pottery or anything with your hands," she told the outlet when asked about how she defines herself outside of her work.

"It’s just trying to discover what my life is outside of the presentation of who I am."

Related: 20 Former Child Stars on the Ups & Downs of Growing Up in the Spotlight

Last month, Thorne, 27, who rose to fame alongside Zendaya, spoke to PEOPLE about how she's "made peace" with her own rocky relationship with childhood fame.

"There should be real therapy mandated for children growing up and becoming famous overnight," Thorne said. "I think Chappell Roan just spoke about this too — how you’d be crazy not to go crazy because it’s just too much at points in your life. If the correct guardrails aren’t in place — and even when they are in place — things can still go wrong."

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Looking back, Thorne — who revealed she'd been sexually abused during her childhood in 2018 — said the "good outweighs the bad of the fun moments I might have missed" as a result of working from such a young age.

"I’m very thankful for [my childhood]. Of course, when I deal with things in therapy and whatnot, therapy has helped me a lot to figure my own s--- out. It’s really helped me understand and not be so angry in life. I think I always felt like I didn’t necessarily have a voice, the way I grew up. It was like everyone else’s voice was on me."

Read the original article on People