Maddie Ziegler is best-known for the reality series Dance Moms and her memorable appearances
in several Sia music videos, but there's a lot more to her than just dance.
In 2017, at age 14, she added best-selling author to her already impressive resume.
According to Yahoo, the Pittsburgh native started dancing when she was just 2 years
old.
She later scored a spot at the Abby Lee Dance Company, whose students, and their ultra-competitive
mothers, became the focus of Lifetime's Dance Moms.
Of course, the road to stardom is never without speed bumps, but this girl refuses to let
her setbacks slow her down.
From the drama surrounding her Dance Moms exit to her plans for world domination, here's
the untold truth of Maddie Ziegler.
"I'm so excited."
"Is she ready?"
"I've been waiting my whole life for this."
She wasn't born a dancer
In her New York Times best-seller memoir, The Maddie Diaries, Ziegler admitted she's
never been a naturally gifted dancer.
"So you're gonna start like this… then you go back…
I'm not really that good at it."
Fans might find that hard to believe, but the teen insists she had to hustle, writing,
"I wasn't very good at [dancing] in the beginning, and I had to work really hard.
It taught me an important lesson: Even if you're not good at something at first, don't
give up.
Someday you will look back and never believe how far you've come."
But Ziegler might never have become a professional dancer at all if not for an unfortunate childhood
injury.
Around the age of 4, she broke her arm just before she was due to start horseback riding
lessons.
She wrote,
"Looking back, I'm really glad that happened, even though at the time I remember being really
upset.
I might have been a horseback rider instead of a dancer!
Things definitely happen for a reason, and I believe in fate."
Even so, Ziegler has her sights set high, telling Teen Vogue,
"I am a very hard critic over myself, and I still think I could be a better dancer,
like I still have so many flaws I could work on."
Not missing Dance Moms
The show might have made her, but Ziegler doesn't exactly miss her time on Dance Moms.
The reality series turned her and the rest of the cast into international celebrities,
but Ziegler's never even watched a full episode.
"Now I just have so much weight off my shoulders, like, aw, I can live my life and do something
without worrying and thinking oh I'm gonna get yelled at if I do this."
She told Seventeen,
"The show was a really stressful time, I just didn't want to deal with all of the drama
anymore.
I'm happy I've moved on.
I get to step out and do my own thing and be myself."
Ziegler did admit that she missed dancing with the girls, but she didn't mention her
former coach, Abby Lee Miller.
In fact, according to Radar Online, Miller's name didn't come up once in Ziegler's book,
either.
And there may be a good reason why.
"Shh, shh…
Abby's gonna hate me…
"Look at me…
"She's gonna hate me.
I've never done this, I've never done this."
Abby Lee Miller's take
As Ziegler's career took off, Abby Lee Miller's was sinking hard.
In 2015, the outspoken coach was indicted on 20 counts of fraud for concealing $755,000
worth of Dance Moms income.
She was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, according to Deadline.
Before turning herself in, Miller did an interview with The View's Jedediah Bila, saying of Ziegler,
"I look at what she has done, and the other jobs and the other opportunities besides Dance
Moms, they all involve dancing.
[…] I don't think, had she not been at my studio, she would be where she is today.
[…] I'm not gonna say that I 'made' anybody […] but I certainly added my two cents in."
According to People, Miller was released from prison after 8 months, serving additional
time in a halfway house in Southern California.
Blowing up with Chandelier
Ziegler became a full-blown sensation in 2014, when she starred in the first of several Sia
music videos.
According to Australian news outlets, the eccentric singer tweeted Ziegler, asking to
collaborate, and Ziegler agreed.
"Chandelier" has been viewed more than a staggering 1.8 billion times on YouTube.
Ziegler told Mamamia,
"Once I did 'Chandelier', everything changed for me.
I had already done Dance Moms […] But after the Sia video came out things just became
crazy.
I mean, there were some big celebrities that all of a sudden knew my name."
"I'm like wow at 11 years old I had like over a million views on a video."
"Billion."
"Yeah."
Unfortunately, Ziegler's next collaboration with Sia didn't go down quite as well.
She performed a routine with Shia LaBeouf in the video for "Elastic Heart," which Sia
anticipated might lead to controversy, given the content.
"Shia and I have been just living in the cage for like a year, and I'm the strong one, and
I'm trying to pretty much kill him."
Sia tweeted: "I apologize to those who feel triggered by 'Elastic Heart,' my intention
was to create some emotional content, not to upset anybody."
She's a YouTube star
"You are a very great dancer and I look up to you."
"What?"
YouTube users have watched her billions of times in music videos, but Ziegler's own channel
is also pretty successful, with more than 2.8 million subscribers.
She told Seventeen,
"I film and edit all of my videos myself.
It's more personal that way.
It's a lot of work, but it's important to me because I want to put out cool content."
She's become particularly well-known for her beauty vlogs, specializing in makeup tips
and tutorials.
She told Billboard,
"I was super into makeup at such a young age.
So, that's why I really wanted to make a YouTube channel so that I could show people, of course,
just like my life and do some fun challenges, but also show some little makeup looks."
Ziegler also vlogs about fashion and has even launched her own clothing line.
But she's not stopping there.
"I also cut my one of my friends' hair all the time, so…"
"She's so talented!"
She's already making inroads in Hollywood.
She lent her voice to 2016's animated feature Leap!, and made her on-screen debut in 2017's
The Book of Henry.
Ziegler told Billboard,
"... coming from being a dancer from the age of 2 and then breaking into acting, dance
has definitely helped me transition into acting a lot."
We're looking forward to an extraordinarily bright future for this multi-talented powerhouse!