You remember the glitter, the excessive layers of neon clothing, and those high-energy dance sequences on Shake It Up. It’s been well over a decade since Zendaya and Bella Thorne first graced our screens as Rocky Blue and CeCe Jones. For a lot of us, they were the ultimate duo. But the moment the cameras stopped rolling, the internet decided they had to be rivals.
Honestly, it’s a narrative we see constantly with young women in Hollywood. If you aren't best friends, you must be enemies. Right? Well, the truth about their relationship is a lot more nuanced than a simple "feud" or "BFF" label. They were two kids thrown into a high-pressure environment where they were literally paid to be compared to one another.
The Disney Pressure Cooker
When the show started in 2010, Zendaya was 14 and Bella was 13. Think about that for a second. At an age when most of us are struggling to figure out how to talk to a crush or pass algebra, these two were the faces of a global franchise.
Bella has been surprisingly candid about those early days. She’s mentioned in several interviews, including a notable 2021 sit-down with Us Weekly, that they weren't actually friends during that first season. It wasn't because of a personality clash. It was because everyone around them—producers, fans, the media—was pitting them against each other.
"We were pitted against each other when we were 13 and 14," Bella once shared. "It was like, 'Who’s better at this?' and 'Who’s better at that?'"
Imagine being a teenager and having your coworkers and bosses constantly measuring your worth against the girl sitting right next to you. It’s a recipe for awkwardness. It took a long, honest conversation during the second season for them to realize they actually liked each other. They decided to stop playing the game the industry wanted them to play.
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Two Totally Different Career Trajectories
Looking at where they are now in 2026, it’s wild to see how far they’ve diverged. People love to use "success" as a weapon to compare them, but they’ve chosen entirely different lanes.
Zendaya has become the blueprint for the "prestige" transition. She didn't just escape the Disney shadow; she blew it up. Between her history-making Emmy wins for Euphoria and her role in the massive Dune franchise, she’s reached a level of Hollywood royalty that few ever touch. As of early 2026, the hype for Euphoria Season 3 is reaching a fever pitch, with rumors of a five-year time jump that will see her character, Rue, navigating a much darker adult world in Mexico. She’s calculated, private, and incredibly selective about her brand.
Bella Thorne took the "disruptor" route. She didn't want the polished, Oscar-contender image. She went into indie horror, wrote books, directed, and famously shook up the creator economy by joining OnlyFans, which—love it or hate it—was a massive business move that changed how celebrities look at personal monetization.
- Zendaya's Focus: High-fashion, A-list cinema, and executive producing.
- Bella's Focus: Independent film, entrepreneurship, and unfiltered social media presence.
Basically, Zendaya chose the system, and Bella chose to break it. You can't really compare the two because they aren't even running the same race anymore.
Are They Still Friends in 2026?
This is the question that keeps popping up on Reddit and TikTok. Because they aren't posting selfies together every week, people assume there’s "beef."
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The reality is much more "adult." They are on good terms, but they live completely different lives. Zendaya is often traveling between London—where she spends time with Tom Holland—and major film sets. Bella is busy running her various business ventures and filming indie projects.
Bella has consistently defended Zendaya in the press. Whenever an interviewer tries to bait her into saying something negative about Zendaya’s success, she shuts it down. She’s gone on record saying how proud she is of Zendaya and how "it makes her so happy" to see her winning.
It’s a mature kind of friendship. It’s the kind where you might not talk every day, but you have a shared history that nobody else understands. They are two of the few people on earth who know exactly what it felt like to be a "Disney Girl" in the early 2010s.
Why the "Rivalry" Narrative Won't Die
The reason we still talk about Zendaya and Bella Thorne as a pair is because of how we treat young women in entertainment. We love a "winner" and a "loser." We want to see who "won" the Disney era.
But if you look at the facts, they both won.
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- Zendaya won the "Prestige" game.
- Bella won the "Autonomy" game.
Zendaya has even spoken about her "complicated relationship" with her child star past, noting in a recent People interview that figuring out who you are in front of the whole world is a trauma in itself. Bella has echoed this, saying she’s finally "made peace" with that rocky childhood fame.
Moving Beyond the Comparison
If you’re still looking for drama between these two, you’re going to be disappointed. There is no secret feud. There is no hidden shade in their Instagram captions. There are just two women in their late 20s who have navigated a very weird industry and come out the other side with their careers intact.
If you want to support them, the best thing you can do is stop comparing them.
- Watch Zendaya in the upcoming season of Euphoria or catch up on her work in Challengers if you want top-tier acting and production.
- Follow Bella if you’re interested in the business of being an independent creator or if you enjoy gritty, low-budget genre films.
The next time you see a "Zendaya vs. Bella" thread, remember that they stopped competing with each other back when they were 14 years old. Maybe it's time the rest of the world did the same.
To get a better sense of their growth, look back at their 2012 interviews versus their 2025 press junkets. The shift from "rehearsed Disney kids" to "opinionated adults" is the real story here.