Dwyane Wade Says He's Blocking Comments on Daughter Zaya's Instagram to Protect Her Mental Health

Zaya Wade/instagram; getty

Dwyane Wade said he's restricted comments on his daughter Zaya Wade's Instagram page to protect her from trolls leaving negative remarks.

The retired professional basketball player, 40, revealed his decision on Thursday to put in the Instagram feature, tweeting about it after fans questioned why the comment area on Zaya's page was suddenly restricted and they were unable to post a message.

For Zaya's mental health and privacy we've decided not to allow the hate into her comments," said Dwyane of his 15-year-old daughter. "Thank you for wanting to spread and show her love."

Many fans tweeted in approval of Wade's decision. "PERIOD!" wrote one. "And that's on prioritizing your child's well-being. She doesn't need our comments telling us she is non stop serving in every posted photo bc she has a solid, real support system at home and we love to see it!"

Another tweeted, "LOVE this protection for baby girl. I hope she knows she has a whole online community of support from a lot of us on here regardless."

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Since coming out as transgender in 2020, Zaya has received unconditional support from both Wade and her stepmother, Gabrielle Union.

But Zaya has also talked about the struggles she has faced dealing with online criticism and detrimental beauty advice.

"As a trans person, once I came out, there was a lot of hateful comments about how I should grow my hair out long or fit into a certain version of femininity, even though that's not true at all," Zaya said back in May, during a joint interview with Union for the Dove Self-Esteem Project. "That kind of advice is just trying to break you, but don't let it."

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John Salangsang/Shutterstock

For Union, it's important that she and her husband "try to stress" the value of "internal beauty" to Zaya.

"You can be a 'stunner' or 'classically beautiful person' but if your soul is rotten, you are not very beautiful at all," Union said. "We try to stress character, compassion, love, acceptance and joy. That hopefully radiates from the inside out. When it comes to how she moves through the world, we try to stress there is no one way to be a woman or to be feminine."

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As for the most important lesson she's learned from the 49-year-old actress, Zaya said: "Her telling me that not everyone in the world and in the media is going to be truthful about what you look like."

"I don't have to believe everything they say. The only thing I have to believe is what I feel and what beauty means to me," she continued. "I think focusing on inner beauty is the most important."