When you look at celebrity children, the first thing that you don’t necessarily think of is that they have it hard. You may tend to thin that they were born with the keys to the kingdom, giving them access to fame, money, opportunities, and more. Well, in a recent interview with Girlgaze, Willow Smith states that growing up in the spotlight has had its own set of problems and that growing up famous was “excruciatingly terrible.”
Daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pickett-Smith, Willow said in the interview that growing up famous can actually have an affect on a child’s mental health. “I feel like most kids like me end up going down a spiral of depression,” Smith stated, “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.”
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The young multi-talented artist in her own right goes on to say in the interview that, “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. 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, 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. 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.”
Perhaps it is that sentiment that makes Smith’s music and art so relatable to not only those who share famous celebrity parents but to a general public as well.
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What do you think? Do you think that celebrity children have it harder because they were born in the spotlight? Sound off! We want to hear from you. To read Smith’s interview in its entirety, click here.
