Willow Smith is someone who is used to standing out. She is a Hollywood tale as old as time; daughter of superstars who has spent most of her life in front of the press. She is only 21, but there are already many titles in her orbit: singer, songwriter, actress, guitarist, spokesperson. It’s a place where many children of celebrities can crash and burn, jostling with the pressure of living up to the blinding star quality of their parents. But Willow seems to have found the antidote, and is making a name for herself, all on her own. When we meet on a Monday morning in June, speaking over Zoom, Willow calls in from her GLAMOUR cover photoshoot in a studio in Paris. Her settings are as expected of someone reared for stardom; she is surrounded by a flock of handlers, the styling team, her trusted makeup artist Raoúl, her management, assistants, PRs and more. She is also on duty today as ambassador for Mugler’s Alien Goddess fragrance; her second collaboration with the brand, fronting the campaign for the new Alien Goddess Intense Eau De Parfum – yet another marker of a mini-mogul set for growing fame.
Despite having just flown in and feeling the effects of jet-lag, she chats amiably to the team with a familial enthusiasm, putting those around her at ease, sharing lunch with the crew and making chit-chat. She seems totally unfazed by the hustle and bustle in her midst, rather, she is serenely taken by the good weather in Paris that day. “It’s so pretty, the weather is giving everything that needs to be given,” she gushes whilst tucked into a white bathrobe. “It’s such a beautiful place. I’m always grateful to be here.”
It’s only when she turns her angles to the camera and delivers some model attitude, that we are reminded just how strikingly cool she actually is. Today, her signature buzzcut has been freshly tended to. “I like to see a glare on my scalp, a bounce of light,” she quips. Later she tells me, “Shaving my head is maybe the most radical thing I’ve done in the name of beauty.”
Willow has a styling that puts her face completely in focus, and she is all cheekbones, glimmering makeup and glistening septum ring. She takes my copious compliments on her look gracefully; she is poised, polite, never stumped for an answer. You can tell she must be used to this by now.
Her famous family will need little introduction. She is the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, a couple whose acting and musical talents have stormed Hollywood since the early ’90s, and sibling to brothers Jaden and Trey Smith. The youngest of the clan, she first came to public attention aged seven, appearing alongside her father in 2007 blockbuster I Am Legend, later breaking into music with the release of Whip My Hair three years later, at the ripe old age of 10 years old. Already a pint-sized star, she was destined to start a career early.
“Yikes. I mean, I was definitely fearless back in the day!” she acknowledges, when reflecting on her early years in showbusiness. “I think a little bit more about things before I do them now, which is a good thing. I feel like I’m forever evolving and trying to find the most authentic version of myself. I think that’s a lifelong thing.”
Willow’s shaved head is associated with an act of rebellion in her early years; the buzzed haircut she wears now became a style of choice around the Whip My Hair era. Back then, she’d had a sea of long braids, aligning with the theme of her breakout single. But she’d become frustrated with being overworked whilst on tour, and took the clippers to her own head on a whim.
“As a Black woman there were a lot of layers to my relationship with my hair and skin growing up; it was definitely a learning curve,” she says today.
Nowadays she’s become known for her styling and willingness to play with different looks. From having locs, to twists, to wigs, Willow has become a representation for many others, including Black women who live life outside the box and who dispel narrow style margins. Hence, it’s easy to see that being off-kilter has never been a stunt, rather the natural fabric of who she is. “However I’m feeling, I like to do that. I don’t really like to think about it too much,” she shrugs in reference to her styling. “I love to be free with it. I think just being me sometimes is radical.”
“I had to look up to other beautiful Black women. Just looking at someone who’s like me, living their truth and doesn’t let what society says tear them down. I think that was the most important [influence] for me as a child.”
One such woman – arguably perhaps the most influential – is undoubtedly her mother, Jada.
She tells me how her first exposure to rock music was through her mum when she was a young girl, joining Jada’s band Wicked Wisdom during a performance at Ozzfest. “That was my first experience with music touring. And just watching her as a Black woman in this crazy metal scene. I was like, ‘Hell, yeah!’ I loved it.”
Her love for music was stoked by her parents, who would listen with her in the house and share recommendations. “My mom showed me everything. I still go to her now like, ‘You got any new stuff for me to listen to?’”
When artistry meets activism
Of course, recent events have put her family at the forefront of major news. Who could forget the elephant in the room in terms of this year’s news coverage: Oscargate. On 28 March, Will slapped presenter Chris Rock on stage at the 94th Academy Awards, mid-ceremony, after Chris made a ‘joke’ about Jada’s hair (the actress lives with alopecia).
Will has since addressed the incident on a video, expressing his regret, sending his apologies to Chris, the Academy and his wider family, at times seeming to be fighting back tears.
It is the elephant in the room even now. I am requested not to raise the topic today, or wider questions on Willow’s family life or Jada’s alopecia, both prior to and after the interview. But these are maybe fair requests from a family that have much of their inner sanctum on display.
Jada has previously discussed facing discrimination as a Black artist making alternative music. When I mention the topic today, Willow is instantly alert. “Oh, my goodness. She was getting death threats. It was a crazy amount of stuff going on.
I remember being like, ‘Yo! People are really upset about this, they’re mad that a Black woman wants to do metal and is in the space.” She pauses before continuing. “Like that was activism.”
It’s no secret that Black artists in the alternative scene often suffer pigeonholing and discrimination in comparison to their white peers. Even someone as big a star as Willow has found herself constrained, and resisting unfair treatment has been something she’s had to become used to.
“When I wanted to do a rock album, there were a lot of executives that were like, ‘Hmm…’ she says, frowning. “If I had been white, it would’ve been completely fine; but because I’m Black it’s, ‘Well… maybe let’s just not’ – and making it harder than it needs to be.” That double-standard is something that raises concerns with her for her peers in the scene. “If I go through that, every single other Black artist is getting the pushback [too].”
In 2021, the artist dropped Lately I Feel Everything, an album that would largely define her as someone known to play with different genres. From acoustic down to nü-metal, it was Willow’s first professional foray into the alternative music scene.
“I love all different kinds of music, I don’t like to box myself into anything,” she tells me. “I was trained to be an R&B singer so I went in that direction. But I’ve always had a huge affinity for rock music ever since I was just a wee bean.”
Lately I Feel Everything came as a result of pushing back with execs to make what was true to her – and of course, the record turned out as a success. But she held little surprise that it came out that way, crediting her “vision” in staying true to herself in the face of discomfort. “The most beautiful changes on earth don’t happen by being comfortable and expecting other people to change. You have to put yourself on the line sometimes. It’s not fair, but that’s how it is,” she says.
In her opinion, it’s a case of allowing “people of colour, women and all marginalised communities [to] step out of the boxes that society wants to put us in. Not even just in music, but in every part of our lives – that’s the special sauce.”
We talk about other trailblazers like Nova Twins, Bad Brains and Skunk Anansie frontwoman Skin, all Black artists who have pioneered a place in the scene. She is now one of those names paving the way for individuality as she gears up to release follow-up album Coping Mechanism this month,, but also feeding the resistance she witnessed from her mother into her own music.
“Music has been at the forefront of some of earth’s biggest paradigm shifts,” she states. “Part of the reason I love it is because it’s such a strong agent of change. I definitely think there’s always more to do in [terms of] the way that we do business in these artistic branches and endeavours. It’s systematic oppression. If we start to undo that, then hopefully real change can happen.”
The singer and her tattoo artist both shared pictures of this outer space-themed ink.
I ask her how she thinks we can make better spaces for women in music and what can be done to make women feel more empowered in the music scene. “I think the music scene reflects the world,” she finally says.
“For a long time, women have been looked at and expected to be in these boxes. It’s up to the people who have been a part of the oppressing, but it’s also up to us to step out of that. That’s scary, and it’s sometimes dangerous.
We need to make better spaces for each other and stop expecting other people to make spaces for us. We need to start holding our sisters, and start listening to each other the way that we wish other people would.”
Though we keep silent on recent familial issues, Willow does not have a problem being candid. Publicising issues of mental health and her own experiences with anxiety is something important to her. Sharing advice for how fans and others can alleviate symptoms is something she’s passionate about, and she talks to me about her own mental health management.
“Sometimes [managing your mental health] is so overwhelming that you can’t really bring yourself to do much else besides reminding yourself of the things that really matter,” she says. “For me, I love a good mantra. Recently, my mantra has been, ‘I accept everything as it is, and I’m grateful for it.’ Repeating that over and over again; that’s been really helping me.”
Putting struggles into her lyrics is also therapeutic, she tells me, and being able to share struggles publicly in song is a priority of hers. “If you don’t talk about it, I don’t know how the healing’s going to start,” she says. “Even if it’s to yourself in the mirror, you know? I do that all the time.”
Unwillingly, my face instantly scrunches at the mental image of giving myself a motivational pep talk in the mirror. Willow instantly senses my hesitation, but she insists it is something we all should be trying. “Honestly, I’m not joking!” she says.
“I’ll literally talk to myself like I’m my best friend. And then be like, OK, what would my friend say to me right now? What would someone who really, really loves me say to me? It kind of feels unnatural because our own minds are so harsh sometimes.”
She runs me through other tactics that help; self-care and wellness, and even aromatherapy – fitting for an ambassador for a perfume. She gravitates to scents that soothe, and ground her on earth: “I’m always here for a nice, warm, floral and feminine scent, Alien Goddess gives me that and it slays,” she beams. “After it rains, I love the smell of rain on the concrete. I always wish I could wear it,” she says wistfully.
Willow’s goal is to root herself in the things she holds dear amongst the hustle and bustle of fame – a difficult feat for your average multi-hyphenate Gen-Z, it seems. “Sometimes we get sidetracked by so many different things in life, and forget to love people in the way that they deserve to be loved. I’m a culprit of that.
I’m grateful for the fact that I love the people who love me. And I’m grateful that I’m aware of their love for me.”
But for the duration of our conversation, Willow holds an otherworldly, even utopian outlook on her place in the world, her experiences and duties within it. This, it seems, is what truly makes her stand out as an ‘alien goddess’; a unique force both inwardly, and outwardly. “My only goal is to embody pure love and acceptance,” she says. “And to inspire other people to find that place within themselves, and do the same.”
Mugler Alien Goddess Intense Eau De Parfum, £63 for 30ml, mugler.co.uk
Photographer: Thom Kerr
Photographer Assistants: Kankou Sambakessi, Edward Wendt
Creative Direction: Dennis Lye, Camilla Kay
Stylist: Steven Huang
Stylist Assistant: Nathan Fox
Makeup: Raoul Alejandre
Makeup Assistant: Jimmy Stam
Hair: Kazue Deki
Nails: Adrienne
Producer: Elizabeth Robert
