Willow Smith found it “hard” to speak about her experience with self-harm.
The 18-year-old singer confessed during an episode of her mother Jada Pinkett Smith’s Facebook Watch show ‘Red Table Talk’ in May 2018 that she had started “cutting herself” as a way to cope with the mounting pressures of fame following the success of her single ‘Whip My Hair’.
And now, Willow has said she found that episode to be the toughest one to film because it wasn’t “easy” being so open about her struggles. She said: “I think by far [the hardest episode to film] would have to have been the episode where I was talking about my self-harm. I mean nobody wants to come out and tell the whole world about that but I felt that was very important for other girls or boys that are going through that as well for me to come out and talk about my life. But it’s never easy.”
Despite finding some topics tough to talk about, Willow also praised the show – which she stars on with her mother and grandmother Adrienne Banfield-Jones – for helping her releasing you can be “successful” no matter what your background.
She added: “I think the most surprising thing I’ve learned being on the show is that no matter what you go through, no matter how dark that is in your past or in your childhood or the things that you went through, you can come out amazing and still do even more and be even more successful.”
Willow also spoke about the best piece of advice her mother has given her, which she said was simple to be herself.
Speaking to Essence magazine, she said: “It’s always stuck with me. It’s so simple but I feel like it encompasses the core of most of the internal issues that I face in my life. It’s always don’t care about what anyone else thinks. You have to be yourself. You have to do what makes you happy. I feel like that’s a core of a lot of issues that people have internally in their life is caring too much about what people think and not putting themselves first and their happiness and their spiritual evolution first.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental wellbeing, visit bonga.or.ke and speak out anonymously.
