"Make sure you keep your head up and stay positive. Most importantly, be kind to other people"
About this Quote
The pivot is the real tell: “Most importantly, be kind to other people.” She’s demoting the self-help stuff and promoting an ethic. That’s not accidental. For a young Black woman navigating fame, kindness functions as both moral stance and strategic refusal. It rejects the industry’s preferred script for women - be competitive, be catty, be “difficult” so the machine can punish you for it. Kindness becomes reputational armor, a way of setting a tone that disarms the tabloid appetite for conflict.
There’s also a generational context here: Zendaya is speaking to a crowd raised on relentless comparison, algorithmic outrage, and performative “clapbacks.” Her line is calibrated for that environment - short, meme-ready, parent-friendly - but it sneaks in a sharper cultural critique. If you can’t control the noise, you can control your conduct. In a moment when “self-care” often collapses into self-focus, she’s insisting the social part matters most.
Quote Details
| Topic | Kindness |
|---|---|
| Source | Interview with J-14 magazine (2014) |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Zendaya. (2026, January 30). Make sure you keep your head up and stay positive. Most importantly, be kind to other people. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/make-sure-you-keep-your-head-up-and-stay-positive-184660/
Chicago Style
Zendaya. "Make sure you keep your head up and stay positive. Most importantly, be kind to other people." FixQuotes. January 30, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/make-sure-you-keep-your-head-up-and-stay-positive-184660/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Make sure you keep your head up and stay positive. Most importantly, be kind to other people." FixQuotes, 30 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/make-sure-you-keep-your-head-up-and-stay-positive-184660/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.







