Will Smith says he and Jada want to give their kids the ‘freedom to be who they are’
Will Smith has spoken again about his kids, and Jaden’s decision to wear skirts, saying he “doesn’t give parenting advice”, but that he wants them to “be who they are”.
Speaking to BET promoting his new film Collateral Beauty, Smith says: “First of all, I don’t give parenting advice per se, because it’s such a unique task. The greatest human task is to render a human being into the world.”
Adding: “What I do with my children, that I feel that the greatest gift that I can give my children is the freedom to be who they are.”
He goes on: “Jada and I are very serious about finding what they are, and encouraging them to be what they are because you can never be happy being what you’re not.”
The Men in Black star earlier this year spoke to BBC Radio 1Xtra to say his son Jaden is an “artist”, and that he is learning to “be comfortable doing things that people don’t agree with.”
Jaden stripped down to nothing but a skirt for Korean Vogue ealrier this year.
The 17-year-old – who was unveiled as the new face of Louis Vuitton womenswear – has been praised for continually breaking traditional gender stereotypes.
His father, Will, told 1Xtra: “Theres a really powerful internal quality as an artist that as parents we encourage. You’ve gotta get out on the edge. You’ve got to be comfortable doing things that people don’t agree with and you’ve got to be comfortable doing things that you could fail.”
He continued: “Jaden is 100 percent fearless. He will do anything. 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 doesn’t concern himself with what people think.”
Last summer, Smith – the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith – wore a white dress when attending his school prom with actress Amandla Stenberg, who came out as bisexual on Snapchat last month.
“Einstein didn’t really like to change clothes because he had too much other stuff to worry about and I’m the same,” he said.
“All black is pretty much my go-to look. If somebody is just wearing something for the blogs, that’s really sad because they’re not living for themselves, versus someone wearing a kimono who’s having an awesome time.
“I really look to see, do you care more about what other people think, or are you having fun?”
