"How many of you are unemployed?" 20-year-old Cassi Simms asked, to a chorus of whoops and hollers.
A crowd of 60-some-odd people were gathered at Wilma Chan Park in Oakland on Wednesday afternoon for the latest incarnation of the “lookalike contest” phenomenon that has grown into a full-on national craze. First, it was Timothée Chalamet lookalikes (and the real deal) in Manhattan, then Dev Patel doppelgängers at Dolores Park and “The Bear” heartthrob Jeremy Allen White replicas in Chicago.
This contest subject was one of the most challenging so far: Singular beauty, Dune actress, and Oakland native Zendaya. In these contests, winning is less about looking like the subject, and more about a certain je ne sais quoi, the intangibles. The ideal Zendaya lookalike must have “that vibe, that draw, that rasp in her voice,” Simms explained, before adding, “My dream Zendaya, I want her to be kind of gay, to be kind of esoteric.” Her favorite Zendaya, of course, was in Challengers.
Simms masterminded the Zendaya contest, first mostly by hanging fliers for the event around the Berkeley campus. After a post about it from Pop Crave went viral this weekend, she decided to make it happen, come rain or shine. As for why the contest was on a Wednesday afternoon (“such a jobless day/time,” a friend texted me), it was Simms' only day off from work.
“I thought 25 people would show up and I had $40 in my savings account,” Simms joked to the crowd as they anxiously huddled around, waiting for the proceedings to start. (More on that second part later.)
It was a healthy mix of people, considering the timing and the forecasted rain (which fortunately didn't show much): Zendaya stans, the terminally online, and a lot of local journalists on the quest for a fun little story (or hoping Zendaya herself would show up, a la her Dune costar). It was basically Outside Lands for the brainrotted, chilly weather and all.
One contestant, Tenshi Vilchis, drove up from UC Santa Cruz to take part in the contest. Her mom heard about the contest on NPR, Vilchis told me, and figured she could squeeze the contest in after her 8 a.m. class. (Her favorite Zendaya? Swag era Zendaya.) Another, 24-year-old software engineer Zainab Bansfield, had been told that she resembled Zendaya for much of her young life.
“She was one of the first Disney stars that looked like me,” Bansfield, who's partial to Spider-Man Zendaya, said. “I kind of just thought, ‘This is my chance to compete in this.’”
At around 1:30 p.m., seven contestants, including Vilchis and Bansfield, lined up to compete. Though it was billed as a lookalike contest, Simms treated it like a Miss Zendaya pageant, complete with crown and sash. Competitors had to show off their dancing, modeling, and answer a few basic Zendaya trivia questions. (Zendaya's a Virgo, if you didn't know.)
The contest itself was a slapdash effort. The portable mic-speaker setup wasn’t charged enough, so contestants’ responses were barely audible. Simms had $40 and a dream — and she emphasized that throughout the course of the contest.
“We were just not prepared,” Simms told me before the contest began. “But hopefully people have fun anyway.”
She was right. The logistical chaos really didn’t matter. A girl no older than 10 named Zanayah absolutely worked the runway, punctuating her dance to Zendaya’s “Replay” with a surprise cartwheel. One woman dressed in Challengers cosplay pulled out a small Ru-veal, removing her Stanford sweatshirt and showing off her “I Told Ya” shirt mid-contest. And, to the naysayers on X, at least a couple of the contestants so closely resembled Zendaya herself that I had to do a double-take to make sure she hadn’t secretly shown up.
For many attendees, the fun was in witnessing in-person what thousands will inevitably see on Pop Crave. (Yours truly looks pulchritudinous in the Pop Crave post about the contest, by the way.) A nearby middle school class had started playing by the end of the event, strangers had commingled, reveling together in the absurdity of the thing.
Bansfield was declared Miss Zendaya, and received a prize of $40, a set of Carol’s Daughter haircare products, and a couple bottles of cider. (“Now y’all can’t call me broke,” Simms said as she handed over the basket.)
“Honestly, my friends are all chronically online,” Bansfield said as she received her crown and sash, adding that they'll probably see her win before she can even tell them.
