Hollywood actress Zendaya reveals she had to ‘protect’ herself as a child star

Speaking on YouTube series PayOrWait, she said: "It's a lesson you have to learn young. I was a kid thrown into a very adult industry where if you do have a perspective or something to say, it's like 'Well they're a kid'. And the parents ... it's like ... they are just the parents so you have to learn how to protect yourself quite quickly."

"For me, it was a lesson learnt quite early — back in my Disney days — of little tricks and little things I could do to protect myself, or protect my peace or protect my happiness. I think when you're a kid in this industry, you're very vulnerable. I do wish I could have just been a kid for a little bit longer but yeah, the lessons happened very early. I don't know if there was a specific moment but it definitely happened quite young, having to learn to have my own back a little bit."

However, the actress recalled having an on-set teacher during her time on Disney Channel.

She said: "I had a wonderful on-set teacher who was very adamant about safety, breaks, time and so ... she's like an aunt to me now. Shoutout to Monique. She became my family, but she was someone who just advocated for the kid, she'd say 'They need to take a break', or 'That's too dangerous, I don't want them doing that', or 'They have school!'. You'd be surprised how that is not common practice in this industry."