Known for combining crisp dances with technical moves to recreate some of the most beloved animated dances across generations. Zaynah Bear (Madame_Zay) is a viral star, Millennial of the Year Influencer (Black Influencer Weekend), impressive tiny weapons collector and overall beautiful person inside and out! I had the pleasure of interviewing Zaynah at Dream Con 2025 to learn more about her favorite dances, SpongeBob moments, and love of alien anime!
Interview Transcript:
The biggest piece of advice I can say is just post the content and don’t worry about some people not liking it because some people will. There’s a community for everyone.
Zaynah bear
The Anime Tea: I want to introduce, a beautiful person, a viral dancing star, Millennial Influencer of the Year of 2024, nostalgic cartoon enthusiast, and impressive weapons collector of a mini weapons collection that I’m really jealous of! Zaynah Bear! Thank you so much for having an interview with me today!
Zaynah: Thank you for having me!
The Anime Tea: I want to ask you a couple of questions so we can get to know you a little bit better. Starting with, I know that you do a lot of cartoon dances. Is there a cartoon dance that you love that maybe you haven’t done, but that you just like, in general? (Or a dance that you have done that you love?)
Zaynah: I’m trying to think of one that I haven’t done that I love. My favorite recreation that I’ve done is the Aqua Teen Hunger Force one. I had the most fun with that one!
The Anime Tea: That’s nice. So you that one’s your favorite?
Zaynah: Yeah, that one was definitely my favorite recreation.
The Anime Tea: I also know that you’re a SpongeBob fan. And you’ve talked about it before on your channel and in your content. Is there a memorable episode or moment that you always think of or that makes you smile?
Zaynah: There are so many key SpongeBob episodes. Dang, that’s a hard question! I think the one where, like, SpongeBob and Patrick, like, made this thing and they ate it and their breath stank, and they thought they were ugly the whole time. That’s probably my favorite episode!
The Anime Tea: “I’m ugly and I’m proud!” I love it.
I also want to ask quickly about your film style process. How did you get your really crisp movements? I know it’s also your dancing style, but is it some editing also? What’s your process for that?
Zaynah Bear: It’s just sped up, so it’s not like any really special process besides, I do move sharply by myself, but it makes it look sharper after it’s sped up a little bit.
The Anime Tea: Oh, okay. That’s good to know because it’s so fluid but it also captures the movements of the characters you’re recreating so well.
Zaynah Bear: Yeah a lot of people thing is like stop motion or something and it’s not that complicated!
The Anime Tea: That’s really cool to know because it’s like looks so complex, but it’s actually simple.
Zaynah Bear: But yeah, it’s honestly mostly just like moving in an animated way. So the speed does the rest.
I like that I’m inspiring other people to nurture their inner child more, because there’s so much happiness that comes with it!
Zaynah bear
The Anime Tea: I think before you’ve talked about how neurodivergent kids and people kind of look up to you and your content. And of course, black women also look up to your content. How does it make you feel to be seen as representation in nerdy black space online?
Zaynah: It’s kind of an honor because, well, I don’t know if it’s different in schools nowadays because, you know, people have more community because of social media and what have you. But I feel like I’m representation for the kids that got bullied growing up, especially the black nerds that were called like “oreos” and stuff like that. I still got people on my social media like assuming that I only date white people or something crazy like that. I like being representation that you can be a black person that likes black people. You’re a normal black person, that just likes cartoons and that just nurtures their inner child. And I like that I’m inspiring other people to nurture their inner child more, because there’s so much happiness that comes with it!
The Anime Tea: I love that! that was a beautiful answer!
Zaynah: Thank you!
The Anime Tea: And I also want to ask, do you have any advice for fellow black women content creators? Maybe that are in the same space or trying to also build up their platforms? Is there anything you would recommend to them being in these spaces online as far as preparing themselves mentally?
Zaynah: I think a lot of what can stop content creators from growing as fast as they potentially could is that people are afraid to fail or to look stupid. So they’ll make some content, and it feels cringey to them and they won’t post it. And I mean, shoot, I’ve been dragged on Twitter a couple of times for being cringey, and it just grew my platform more because I’m reaching more of my people. So I’d say, like the biggest piece of advice I can say is just post the content and don’t worry about some people not liking it because some people will. There’s a community for everyone. And to be consistent. Because if you’re just post one post a month, nobody’s going to follow you because they don’t think they’re going to ever going to see you again.
The Anime Tea: Yeah, I definitely agree with being consistent and just posting past through the hurdles.
Zaynah: Just get past that cringe feeling because somebody is really going to love it. And they’ll love the audacity that you have to be brazenly you. Because a lot of people don’t have the confidence to do that.
The Anime Tea: Yes. I feel very inspired by that. Like, I talk about anime mostly and as a black girl in the anime space. There’s not that many, well there’s a lot of black women talking about anime now. But it feels so separated because there’s so many other people just try to talk over us and it feels like people are saying “oh you’re an oreo” and things like that.
The last thing I want to say is, because I’m an anime channel, I know you may not watch that much anime or you’re not super into anime. But I know you’ve recreated some anime things on your channel. Are there certain shows that you might like?
Zaynah: I’ve seen a few. Yeah, I’m not that deep, deep into it, but I’ve definitely seen a few that I really like. I’d have to say Parasyte is my favorite anime that I’ve seen. It’s one of the few that I started and, like, actually watched to completion. Especially because I like blades! So I really liked just the concept of aliens, Migi and his attitude and whatnot. I really love that one, but one that a lot of people have not heard of is, it’s called Dai Mahō-Tōge if I’m pronouncing that right or another name for it is Magical Witch Punie -Chan. And it’s like this obscure eight episode anime for this alien princess that, like, came down to earth to take over. And she’s so sweet. But like, the theme song is just her dancing in front of burning buildings like “Kill Them All!” It’s the best!
The Anime Tea: So aliens with a little bit of violence and cuteness sounds like your vibe.
Zaynah: Oh yes.
The Anime Tea: Okay, well, thank you so much for being able to talk with us today. And, and that’s the questions I have!
Zaynah: All right. Thank you for having me!
It was a pleasure getting to know more about Zaynah! Please make sure to follow Zaynah Bear on Tiktok, YouTube, and Instagram to see her animation and music video recreations as well as skits and other incredibly choreographed dances and videos!
