Dwyane Wade's 17-Year-Old Daughter Poses For Magazine Cover

02/25/2025 03:37 PM

Zaya Wade, the 17-year-old daughter of NBA legend Dwyane Wade, has landed her first major cover shoot with a prominent magazine. 

Wade's daughter made headlines back in 2020 when she came out as transgender. A few years later, she made an appearance in Miu Miu's show in Paris. Fast forward to this February, and she's posing for the cover of Seventeen, an American magazine that usually has a target demographic of 13-to-19-year-old females. 

In her feature with Seventeen, Zaya opened up about her nonprofit, Translatable. She cofounded it with her father as a way to give transgender voices a platform to gain confidence. 

"I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with an idea for Translatable and have to write it down," Zaya said. "I'm just so passionate about what it can represent and what it can become. It's the worst handwriting you've ever seen, chicken scratch because it's 1 in the morning."

Zaya later talked about the struggles her generation deals with, especially in an era where social media is king. 

"It's genuinely easy to express yourself, the biggest way being on social media," she continued. "There's plenty of positives and plenty of negatives to that. But the expectations for my generation are so much—we don't always have the capacity that others think we do, and that's incredibly suffocating. There's so much pressure to supersede all of the downs of the past 50 years. Like, 'We know you can take these things and make it better.' What? Are you talking to me? I'm a 17-year-old."

Zaya Wade covers Seventeen. https://t.co/QLhfGQhRWxpic.twitter.com/Kpa7mjY2S3

— Brooklyn White-Grier (@brooklynrwhite) February 24, 2025

So far, the reactions to Wade's magazine cover have been mostly positive. Athletes like WNBA star Angel Reese have shown her love on social media, which is always nice to see. 

Seventeen asked Wade's daughter where she'll be go for college. She made it clear that she'd like to attend a school where she can be free of discrimination, so there are certain factors she'll value during her decision process. 

"It would be a little too idealistic to say I'm going to be safe anywhere I go. Even if I'm in a blue state or blue city or blue county, it's not to say that it will be free of Black and queer discrimination. But I'm obviously factoring in the safer choices. I really want to put myself in spaces where I know I can find my community and my community can find me, and we can work together to keep the queer community across the country strong."

As of right now, Zaya hasn't made a final decision. Besides, she's enjoying her life as a teenager. 

Related: Paige Bueckers Turns Heads In Photoshoot For GQ Sports