Lookin’ cute! Dance Moms alum Maddie Ziegler showed off her toned tummy in a cute sports bra and bike shorts look on her Instagram Stories on May 22. The dancer, 17, rocked a black top with leopard print bottoms, both pieces from her collection with Fabletics.
It’s obvious the brunette beauty has grown up since her reality TV debut. Maddie recently addressed backlash from fans who say she and little sister Mackenzie have “changed” since their start on the Lifetime show.
Despite noting she normally stays away from drama, Maddie confronted the smack talk head-on. “Everyone has been saying that we’ve changed and that we’re not the same girls and that we’ve stopped smiling a lot and that we’ve stopped being fun and happy,” the Pennsylvania native said in a video posted to a TikTok fan account on May 17.
“Literally, we have not changed as people,” she promised her followers. “The only thing that’s different is that we’re growing up and we’re starting to look older and more mature and so we’re not going to be taking ‘as cutesy’ photos.”
Maddie and her little sister have been on television since 2011, when they both starred in the popular series profiling Abby Lee Miller‘s dance company in Pittsburgh. Since then, the girls have developed serious careers in acting, dancing and even as social media influencers through their time on the show.
The starlet has been a close friend and collaborator of pop star Sia‘s since she starred in the “Chandelier” music video at age 11 — and the 44-year-old recently revealed she wrote and directed an unreleased film starring Maddie.
The dance prodigy’s boyfriend, Eddie Benjamin, told the Australian songstress he cried while watching the unnamed movie. “I did [cry]. Very rare for me. When I watch a movie and I don’t get emotional, I’m like, ‘Can I feel emotion?’ Seriously, I need a good hit. It was beautiful,” he said during an interview published in Interview magazine on May 13.
Maddie and her man, 18, have been quarantining together since March, so it seems like he knows a thing or two about her dedication as a performer. Keep the cute pics coming, girl!