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Despite frequent celebrity interviews and essays suggesting otherwise, it’s difficult to overcome the societal narrative that fame is an opulent luxury. Instagrams of red carpets, crystalline beaches in Turks & Caicos, and on-call stylists tend to overshadow the all-too-real anxieties that come with being slandered in the press and followed by cameras at the grocery store.
Of course, the negative side to fame is often exacerbated for young children and teens, especially those who did not covet it. Now Willow Smith is getting candid about what it’s actually like to be thrust in the spotlight at such a young age, just by being born to right (or wrong, depending on how you look at it) people.
“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 17-year-old singer revealed to Girlgaze in an interview published Friday.
the media uses peoples lives as entertainment to stupefy the population.
— WILLOW (@OfficialWillow) July 11, 2014
“The only way to get over it, is to go into it,” she continued. “You can’t change your face. You can’t change your parents. You can’t change any of those things. So I feel like most kids like me end up going down a spiral of depression.”
Willow, who is the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, also talked about the role of technology and the merciless nature of a world set on making memes and jokes at any cost.
The media thinks my parents are getting divorced like every second hahaha !
— WILLOW (@OfficialWillow) August 4, 2015
“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,” she said. “When you’re born into it, there are two choices that you have; I’m either going to try to go into it completely and help from the inside, or… no one is going to know where I am… and I’m really going to take myself completely out of the eye of society. There’s really no in-between.”
Celebrities are NOT the property of society
— WILLOW (@OfficialWillow) March 30, 2016
As anyone who’s ever heard “Whip My Hair” will note, Willow opted for the former option. Still, as this interview illuminates, leaning into the spotlight at just ten years old was not a move without its drawbacks, and Willow’s honesty is a refreshing reminder that being born into a celebrity family is not always something to envy.
