[upbeat music]
- Hey, I'm Willow Smith and this is my Glamour Unfiltered.
[upbeat music]
I think that it's only important for me
to challenge conventional wisdom
if that conventional wisdom in some way
says that it's not okay for someone
to be the fullest version of who they are
or it's not okay for them to express what's inside of them
if that's not outwardly hurting anybody else.
[upbeat music]
Some things that I do to just kind of practice
being the most authentic version of myself
is every day there's gonna be an opportunity
where you can say what's really on your mind
or you can just try to not rock the boat
and I think that recognizing those moments
and being aware in those moments
and making the decision to advocate for yourself,
advocate for your expression,
advocate for your rights, even somebody else's rights
like even if it doesn't specifically pertain to you,
to just be aware in those moments
and to show up and speak up in those moments.
[upbeat music]
Living on earth and observing nature has taught me so much
about what the divine feminine truly is
and the amount of nurturing
and caring and honestly, tough love
and power that mother earth represents.
Mother earth is the ultimate mother,
so I get all of my femininity advice from her.
[upbeat music]
I think that people are starting to realize
that you can't tell a human who they are.
The human has to tell you who they are.
So personally, I think that back in the day
when we were living in tribes and connected to the earth,
we understood that more deeply
and since we've moved away from that kind of life
and started living in cities and using phones
and saying, this area is mine and you can't come here,
we just lost that.
Like we just kinda lost that.
So we just have to bring it back
and we have to be aware in the ways
that we bring that compassion and that understanding
and that community back in a world where it's not conducive
to that kind of connection or that kind of understanding.
[upbeat music]
You can't change how other people think or feel about you
'cause their reality is their reality
and the only thing you can do is try to do something good
with what you've been given
and if you don't try to do something good
with what you've been given,
then what's the purpose of you having this?
What's the purpose of even,
I mean, yeah, like what's the purpose
of you even being here?
So that's what I tell myself.
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It's not worth it if you don't try to help people,
like none of it is worth it if you're not in service
and so just trying to do that
in all the different ways that you possibly can.
[upbeat music]
I've had a lot of time to sit
and just think about a lot of my childhood,
a lot of my childhood traumas
that still seep in to my life today
and spending so much time at home
and just having so much time on my hands
to explore those things,
not even like honestly against my will at times
because when you're just sitting at home,
things come up and your mind just starts going
and sometimes you're not even choosing
to address these things but they're coming up,
so you better address it or it's never gonna get fixed.
From being in the limelight from such a young age,
there's a huge trigger of feeling like I'm only valued
when I'm entertaining or when I'm performing
and I'm not valued as just me
without putting on a show and trying to do the things
and that hurts because everyone wants to be loved,
not for what they do, but for who they are.
And so when I start to feel like I'm only being valued
because of my performance or because of my whatever,
anything that doesn't have to do with who I truly am,
I get very triggered and very, very anxious
and very sad and scared very quickly.
I'm grateful for everything my life,
even the things that don't go the way I want them to
and I just try to drill that in
and drill that in and drill that in
and not allow my mind to go to anywhere else but that place.
[upbeat music]
People of color, not even just in the rock world,
are underrepresented in general,
specifically women of color
if we're gonna narrow down even more
and so it's not even just about rock
even though that's a very heavily
white male dominated space,
I think that I just want to express my desire
and my anger at the fact that just people of color
and women of color haven't been given the freedom
to just be who we wanna be without being challenged for it
and questioned because of it
and all of these different things
and honestly, even being attached
and violently attacked because of it.
[upbeat music]
It's about time, we're sick and tired.
We are done being pushed to the side,
attacked, violated and no one caring.
We're just done and it's honestly that simple
at a certain point.
[upbeat music]
I want my music to serve a double purpose
of yeah, like you can listen to this and have fun
and turn your mind off and live in the moment,
but also you're not going to be ingesting
poison into your mind
and it's actually gonna be planting a seed
that is going to help you later in life
and not give you these weird murky, dark feelings
and thoughts later in life
that you really didn't know where it came from.
It's because you were listening
to this negative, hateful music,
or not even just music, but like what we watch,
what we read, who we follow on social media,
all of those things, you are what you eat.
You are what you ingest.
You are what you expose yourself to
and I just wanna be one of the things
that you can expose yourself to
that hopefully will make you feel more love for yourself
and the people around you.
[upbeat music]
It's starting to erode the efficiency and honesty
and ease with which we can communicate with people
in our close-knit community
and that's a problem because those are the people
that we need to communicate with
and those are the people
that we need to, this is our community, like it's real life.
Those are the people that we need to be helping
and communicating with and creating with
in order to make our community a better place
and so on and so on and so on.
[upbeat music]
Not very well, but the failure,
how I think about failure is like not being as compassionate
as I know I should have been in that situation.
Not being as honest as I know
I should have been in that situation.
Not bringing my all to an artistic endeavor
that I knew needed my all.
[upbeat music]
I feel most empowered when I have the courage
to advocate for myself in a radical way
and I feel most empowered
when I feel like I've done something really, really well.
[dramatic music]
To take all of the different experiences,
all of the different heartbreaks and pains
and horrendous mistakes and put it all together
and create a goddess warrior of a woman of yourself.
[upbeat music]
The only thing that truly matters in life
is having meaningful connections
with your fellow brothers and sisters.
[upbeat music]
The universe is infinite and we know this scientifically.
There is no way that there's not infinite amounts
of species out there doing their thing,
kicking it around and wondering the same question,
huh, I wonder if there's some other people out there.
So hopefully one day,
if there any extra terrestrials looking at this right now,
beam me up 'cause I'm down to meet your leader.
I'm down to know what the vibe is and that's where I'm at.