Zaya Wade just turned 18 and threw a birthday bash so fabulous it made the Met Gala look like a PTA bake sale.
Enter: The Venus Ascension Ball. No, that’s not the name of a new Marvel movie—it’s the actual theme of Zaya’s otherworldly soirée. Think intergalactic glam, queer joy, high fashion, higher vibes, and probably a few aliens crying glitter tears of admiration. Held at NeueHouse Hollywood (because where else do you celebrate cosmic royalty?), this wasn’t just a party—it was a statement, a movement, a transmission from the future.
Front and center were her dad Dwyane Wade (retired NBA legend, now full-time #GirlDad icon) and stepmom Gabrielle Union (actress, activist, forever snatched). And because Gabrielle cannot simply exist without dropping poetic truth bombs, she hopped on Instagram and served up a caption that made the entire internet sob into their oat milk lattes.
“Your transparency should be studied, @zayawade,” she wrote, probably while levitating on a cloud of empowerment and good brows. “They say parents are the ones to raise and show their children ‘the way,’ but you’ve been the one to show us what true strength, vulnerability, and love really look like.”
Translation: Zaya is the blueprint. The path. The glowing beacon of Gen Z magic.
“At just 18, you’ve already shown the world what it means to be brave.”
We don’t know about you, but when we turned 18, we were still afraid to make phone calls. Meanwhile, Zaya is out here launching orgs, healing the culture, and redefining what courage looks like—in heels.
Speaking of healing, the birthday bash also doubled as a celebration of the one-year anniversary of Translatable, the nonprofit Zaya and Dwyane launched to support LGBTQIA+ youth and help families stop being weird and start being supportive. It’s like a cosmic hotline for identity, self-expression, and parental enlightenment.
And then—plot twist—MAC Cosmetics rolled in and casually dropped $100,000 like it was spare change in honor of Zaya’s birthday, all for the Trans Wellness Center. Did someone say philanthropic realness?
The check presentation was so dramatic it probably came with a fog machine and a Beyoncé wind fan. (We can neither confirm nor deny this. But we spiritually know it’s true.)
So yes, Zaya Wade is now 18. But more importantly, she’s already operating at Oprah x Supernova x Time Traveler energy. The rest of us? Just trying to find matching socks.
Happy Ascension, Queen Zaya. The galaxy is watching—and it’s obsessed. 👑✨🚀