[Music]
being open about her mental health
struggles working with her musical idol
and focusing on her passion outside of
music there's so much about willow smith
many don't know keep watching to find
out
there's no denying that will and jada
pinkett smith have an insanely glamorous
life and that they have hundreds of
millions of dollars to spend however
they please but there are consequences
to such a lifestyle including an undue
amount of attention on their children as
willow smith explained during a 2017
interview with girl gays growing up and
trying to figure out your life while
people feel like they have some sort of
entitlement to know what's going on is
absolutely excruciatingly terrible the
only way to get over it is to go into it
you can't change your face you can't
change your parents rather than move
into a secluded cabin in the woods smith
has taken her fame in stride but she
recognizes that not all of her peers
have made it through so easily as she
put it i feel like most kids like me end
up going down a spiral of depression and
the world is sitting there looking at
them through their phones laughing and
making jokes and making memes at the
crippling effect that this lifestyle has
on the psyche
after willow's release in 2010 of her
first single whipped my hair she was
suddenly thrust into the spotlight in a
bigger way than ever before which proved
to be quite overwhelming so overwhelming
in fact that she ended up shaving her
head while on tour just so she could go
home as she recalled to vulture in 2017
that's so insane that was a crazy night
i remember it i was very nervous because
i was like dang am i gonna miss my hair
your life looks like a dream life is it
it's a lot of work
at the time smith was only 10 years old
so it's not difficult to understand that
everything had gotten to be too much for
her to handle nevertheless one thing is
for sure she made a statement with the
haircut even though she at first
wondered if she'd regret it as she noted
but then i didn't care i really could
not have cared less that was such a
transformational point for me
willow is also keenly aware of the
issues that come with a black woman
wearing her hair naturally and that's
why she wears her own with great pride
as she revealed to the cut in 2018 we're
best friends i love my locks and they
love me i'm just really calm about it
now when i had my hair out and not in
locks it was such a hassle every single
day trying to do whatever to it
the stress that came with commercial
success at such a young age was too much
to handle for willow smith especially
considering that she was struggling with
her mental health at the time alas she
turned to some unhealthy coping
mechanisms in an effort to deal with the
pain as she explained on an episode of
red table talk after the tour and the
promotion and all of that it was like
they wanted me to finish my album and i
was like no i'm not gonna do that i was
just like plunged into this like black
hole
and i was like cutting myself
what
for the most part willow doesn't enjoy
talking about that dark time in her life
although she also noted totally lost my
sanity for a moment there
she added i honestly felt like i was
experiencing so much emotional pain but
my physical circumstances weren't
reflecting that fortunately willow was
ultimately able to stop self-harming and
heal both physically and emotionally
from the whole experience
willow smith may be a rocker chick with
over 10 million followers on instagram
nowadays but her taste in music didn't
exactly make her the popular girl at
school in fact she was even bullied for
listening to rock bands like my chemical
romance and paramore as she told v
magazine in 2021 i just hope that the
black girls who are listening to my
music see that there's more of us out
there it's a real thing you're not alone
you're not the only black girl who
wishes she could flip her hair to the
side and wear black eyeliner you know
what i mean
smith's role model growing up was her
mom who was actually the founder and
lead singer of the new metal band wicked
wisdom as she explained on an episode of
red table talk this is the music that i
grew up around my mother was a
superwoman she was a rock star she was a
warrior and a nurturer
willow is dating fellow musician tyler
call but just because she has a
boyfriend don't assume that she's
heterosexual or monogamous in fact she's
been very open about the fact that she's
both bisexual and polyamorous as she
explained on an episode of red table
talk i love men and women equally and so
i would definitely want one man one
woman it's not about just the physical
intimacy for willow as she's not
constantly on the prowl for new
experiences in the bedroom instead it's
more about her inner life and what feels
right for her personally as she put it i
focus a lot on the emotional connection
i feel like if i were to find two people
of different genders that i really
connected with and we had a romantic and
sexual connection i don't feel like i
would feel the need to try to go find
more personally
male and female that's all i need well
there it is
if you've ever seen any photographs of
willow smith there's a good chance that
she was with her brother jaden and
there's a good reason for that as
they're about as close as siblings can
be as she explained to teen vogue in
2016 we're like binary stars like two
parts of one thing i know what he's
thinking at all times and he knows what
i'm thinking we're not identical twins
but it feels like that in a lot of ways
willow credits her parents for her tight
bond with her brother they were raised
very freely and were never pressured to
spend time together but they still found
their ways to connect as she put it to
interview magazine in 2016 not a lot of
siblings have that opportunity because
they're always being pushed together so
much they need their time apart in order
to realize themselves and realize who
they are
thanks in large part to her music career
willow smith is worth millions and
millions of dollars but just because
she's financially well off that doesn't
mean she's not interested in eventually
pursuing higher education
in fact there are a lot of scholarly
subjects that she's curious about it's
no secret that she's an avid reader and
that she's quite the deep thinker as
well to that end she dreams of one day
attending the massachusetts institute of
technology to study her intellectual
passions as she proclaimed to vulture in
2017 i know that at one point in my life
i'm going to go to college for both
music and physics i'm gonna need to
block out time in my life as for exactly
when that will happen it's unclear at
the moment for now willow is occupied
with her first love for the foreseeable
future as she put it right now i'm going
ham on my music and i really need to
focus on this i think after i put out
another album or something i'm gonna
block out a couple years of my life to
put all of my energy into learning
physics
willow smith may be young but that
doesn't mean she's not woke she's well
aware of social issues like feminism as
she understands the need for women to
realize that we're all in this together
she's also hyped to the fact that
feminism itself has some work to do as
it's historically excluded women of
color as she noted to harper's bazaar in
2019 it's complicated because i support
the womanist movement the feminist
movement any movement that's supporting
women but it really hurts my heart that
there was this chasm between white women
and black women and that it's still
happening even in the feminist movement
today willow used to think the burden of
educating white women was on black women
but after some in-depth conversations
with the other black women in her life
she now realizes that's not the case as
she explained black women are in such a
unique position especially right now
we've always been in the unique position
but especially right now in the
political climate we really need to do
this work because at the end of the day
what is more important
we use the word feminism a lot of people
misconstrued it to mean that it's only
for women when it's it's for everybody
willow smith is known for her super
unique sense of fashion which she's been
cultivating for a long time it's not
superficial in the least as she views
fashion as a form of art as she admitted
to teen vogue in 2016 i have some cool
shoes on and i wear crazy eyeliner but
it's really all about emulating the
colors you feel inside a lot of clothes
are cute but after you buy the yeezy
shoes after you get your hair done with
a weave you're still the same person i
feel like more and more kids are
starting to realize this
it's really just a chain reaction of
inspiration and positivity that can
happen on such a wide scale
that emphasis on individuality doesn't
mean that willow isn't delighted to be a
part of the fashion industry though far
from it in fact as she also noted being
a young african-american woman with
dreads it blows my mind that i'm a
chanel ambassador like how am i a chanel
ambassador it is so beautiful
willow smith's musical idol just happens
to be one of her biggest fans producer
and blink 182 drummer travis barker was
so blown away by willow's musical talent
when he worked with her on her 2021
album lately i feel everything he
contributed to a few of the songs on the
album including the single transparent
soul as he admitted to rolling stone i
was so impressed i was like this is what
she should have been doing all along
because it sounds so natural it sounds
like who you are every time i've met you
or i've been around you then when i got
into the studio and added some stuff to
it had an idea for a bridge or whatever
it turned out to be a song i was really
proud of in that same interview willow
confessed that she was surprised that
barker would want to work with her on
any music project as she put it i didn't
even think for a second that you were
going to be on transparent soul that was
kind of like a far-fetched fever dream
for me clearly this turned out to be a
harmonious partnership and we love to
see it
willow smith clearly has quite the open
mind so it should come as no surprise
that she's a believer in alien life
forms in a 2021 interview with glamour
she touched on numerous topics including
mental health and cultural stereotypes
willow is the brand ambassador for
mugler's alien goddess fragrance which
prompted glamour to ask her if she
believes in the existence of
extraterrestrials to which she replied
100
come on 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 whether there's some other
people out there and in an interview
with allure willow confessed that what
led to her partnership with mugler was
what it represented as she put it i've
always been into everything and anything
extraterrestrial i've also been into
goddesses throughout history mythology
and religion representations of the
divine feminine bringing those two
things together it just felt so perfect
for me
if you or someone you know is struggling
with mental health please contact the
crisis text line by texting home to
741-741
call the national alliance on mental
illness helpline at 1-800-950 nami 6264
or visit the national institute of
mental health website