Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are incredible actors but they are perhaps the most laidback and understanding parents to their children Jaden, Willow and Trey (Will’s son from a previous relationship). They have been particularly supportive of Jaden’s gender-bending fashion style.
Will was on BBC Radio 1Xtra talking about the boycotting of this year’s Oscars, his upcoming films and his views on parenting.
The radio host, A.Dot, said that Will’s kids seem to have “alot of freedom of expression” and he asked Will “Is that something you consciously encourage them to have?”
Will responded by laughing and saying, “Yeah, I think it may have been a mistake. I think we may have gone too far.”
17 year old Jaden has been wearing dresses since around about 2015 and it has recently been announced he will be the new face of Louis Vuitton’s womenswear campaign among a whole host of other models.
Although Jaden keeps challenging the normalised masculinity norms in our society and his parents are proud of him for doing so, apparently, the initial reaction from Will wasn’t all that supportive.
“He is so completely comfortable and confident in who he is and when I look at him, I really adore that,” Will said in a recent interview with News.Au “Jaden has his own clothing line and then he started wearing a skirt.”
“Then I was like, ‘OK. You cannot wear a skirt.’ He [Jaden] said to me, ‘Dad, it’s fine. It’s going to be so hot all the kids will be wearing it.’ I said, ‘No, the kids are not going to do it because their parents will have sense enough to not let them do it.’ But he’s confident in who he is and who he wants to be.”
“You know, there’s a really powerful internal quality as an artist that as parents we encourage,” Smith explained. “You gotta get out on the edge, you have to try things, you have to be comfortable doing things that people don’t agree with and you have to be comfortable doing things that you could fail.”
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air star added, “And Jaden is 100 percent fearless, he will do anything, you know? So as a parent it’s scary, it’s really terrifying, but he is completely willing to live and die by his own artistic decisions and he just doesn’t concern himself with what people think.”
Check out the full interview:
We think Jaden is inspirational for challenging societal norms at such a young age and we praise Will and Jada for being so supportive of him.
This kind of love and appreciation is something that we should all aspire to and pass onto to the next generation of children if we are to keep challenging gender norms.
What do you think of Will’s comments? Let us know @CelebMix!