Danielle Brooks recently shared a candid look into her personal life in a heartfelt interview with Parents.com. The Oscar-nominated actress opened up about her relationship with her mother, her journey through postpartum depression, and her approach to raising her 4-year-old daughter, Freeya. Check out some highlights from her conversation below!
On 4-year old daughter Freeya:
“Allowing her to know early that there will be shifts in her life—if I could help her with that, I would feel like the best mom ever. I think that’s why so many times, even as teenagers, we get so riled up because we need somebody to tell us we’re in this phase in our life and that phase is exactly where we’re supposed to be; you’re supposed to be uncomfortable. That’s the same thing when you’re stepping into motherhood.”
“I don’t ever want us to pop her bubble or kill her spirit. That’s the thing that is so important for me, to keep that innocence and joy in her heart as long as we can, but also prepare her for the world.”
On adapting to parenthood:
“Right when I had her, I was like way more chill than before because I had bigger battles to fight than the little ones that I thought were so big in my personal life before.”
“I’m a Virgo, right? So, I have to be on time for everything. And when you have a child, that just doesn’t happen. I had to surrender to the fact that I’m not going to be on time and instead of panicking, I’m going to be chill about it and accept that this is how things will be, and life will move on, and be OK.”
On building a village to help with postpartum depression:
“The anger that I might have felt from the things that I was experiencing, I was able to put that into something healthy. Women that I could pray with and talk to and say, ‘Hey, are you feeling the same way? It really helped to have a sisterhood of women I could call at two in the morning that I knew would pick up the phone.”
On healing her relationship with her mother
“It wasn’t until I became a mother myself that I realized that was just her way of protecting me. Once I was able to look at it like that, I was able to forgive and understand her, where she was coming from, and the skills that she had at the time, and that we’re human. I just knew that I wanted to make sure that that relationship was tight and we healed from things and we were able to truly love each other so that now I can have the best tools to raise Freeya without holding on to old stuff from how I was raised.”
For the full story, visit Parents.com.
