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Moya Lothian McLean
Oct 15, 2020
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Figuring out where you belong is a difficult process.
And even celebrities are not exempt from this, it seems.
Willow Smith has revealed that she used to feel “shunned” by the Black community for being “too different”.
On the latest episode of the Smith family show, Red Table Talk, the youngest daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith spoke candidly about feeling like an outcast while growing up.
"Specifically with the African American community, I kind of felt like me and Jaden were shunned a little bit, like, 'We're not gonna take pride in them because they're too different,'" the 19-year-old said, speaking about herself and brother Jaden.
"Even some of our family members, I would feel they thought, 'You're too different”.
Smith was discussing ‘mom-shaming’ with her mother and grandmother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris.
Her admission came after Jada Pinkett Smith said the first time she was “hardcore mom-shamed” was when Willow shaved her head, aged 11.
Pinkett-Smith also noted that the criticism was difficult but paled in comparison to seeing her children happy.
"If they could have seen [Willow]’s expression of freedom looking at her hair falling to the ground ... me as a mom, looking at that, experiencing that with her, there is nothing that anyone could say to me to tell me that it was wrong. Not one person, because I was there," she said.
“I was looking at her. I saw her face. I knew the journey that she and I took together to get to that point," Pinkett Smith added.
“So it didn't really matter what anybody said”.
Something for us all to remember.
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