Willow Smith said it was "absolutely terrible" growing up famous

Willow Smith genuinely believes she has a tough life due to growing up in the spotlight as the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.

“I’m going to be completely and utterly honest, it’s absolutely terrible,” Willow, 17, lamented to Girl Gaze in an interview released Friday.

“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. “You can’t change your face. You can’t change your parents. You can’t change any of those things.” Willow admitted that social media plays a role in her struggle with fame.

Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith and Willow Smith

 

“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,” she said. “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.”

Will previously revealed that he only realized Willow’s ambivalence toward show business in 2012, when she shaved the very hair she rapped about during her “Whip My Hair” tour.

“We came downstairs and she had shaved her head bald,” Will recalled on Jay-Z‘s “Footnotes of Adnis,” released in August. “She shaved her head bald in the middle of her ‘Whip My Hair’ tour. I was like, ‘Oh, s—t.’ … I’m looking at that girl and I’m like, ‘Got it. I understand. You will not have this trouble out of me ever again. Let’s go, baby. We can go.’”