Willow Smith Says Growing Up with Famous Parents Was "Absolutely Terrible"

She held NOTHING back.

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If you think growing up with uber-famous parents would make life easier, Willow Smith is here to shut down that assumption.

In a new interview with Girlgaze, the 17-year-old daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith was asked about growing up famous—and she held nothing back. "To be completely and utterly honest, it’s absolutely terrible," she explained.

She got very real about what it's like to grow up in the spotlight, again using the word "terrible" to describe the experience.

"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—and the only way to get over it, is to go into it," she said.

But, when it comes down to it, she accepts the hand she's been dealt and is determined to make the best of it.

"You can’t change your face," she said. "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, and 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."

And, for Willow, making the best of it means deciding between what she sees as the only two options for someone in her situation—to go in completely or hide from the world. The talented musician and artist seems to have made her choice.

"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…I’m really going to take myself completely out of the eye of society. There’s really no in-between," she said.

Kayleigh Roberts
Contributing Editor at Marie Claire

Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with over 10 years of professional experience covering entertainment of all genres, from new movie and TV releases to nostalgia, and celebrity news. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.