Willow Smith, daughter of actors Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, opened up about big problems facing society, including “racism” and “unconscious cops” in an Interview magazine profile published Tuesday.
Willow and her brother Jaden Smith sat for a joint interview for the September issue of the magazine, where they opened up about Black Lives Matter and the “huge problem” of sexism in society. The wide-ranging interview was conducted by 11-time Grammy Award-winning producer-songwriter Pharrell Williams.
Asked what authors the two young stars are fond of, Willow Smith said Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent brought her to tears because it reminded her of the current tension between police and people of color.
“That book really made me cry. It put me in the place of gratitude for my sisters and mothers that have come before me, because it’s rough out here. Like, racism … People are dying at the moment because of unconscious cops,” the 15-year-old “Whip My Hair” singer said.
The younger Smith also identified sexism as a major problem in the world.
“I just had to take a moment to grieve for the world. But sexism is also a huge problem in society. And that book really opened my eyes to a whole other world of insanity and humanity,” she added.
Meanwhile Jaden, who has sparked controversy in the past for wearing dresses during photo shoots, said he couldn’t understand why older people are “mad” about things that have “happened in the past.”
“It seems like they don’t understand our thought process,” Smith said of adults. “Or, like, things have happened in the past that they’re still mad about. We want to accept them and move forward. I mean, I can definitely see things that have happened in the past that they’re holding on to and things that are happening right now that bog them down, but this generation wants to transcend them.”
When Williams asked Jaden Smith where he sees himself in 10 years, the young artist simply replied: “Gone.”
His sister, however, answered: “I see myself in the mountains somewhere in a tent cooking a squirrel.”
Read Willow and Jaden Smith’s full profile with Interview magazine here.
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