Willow Smith’s hair is grown out, punked out: awesome & righteous?

Here are some new photos of Jada Pinkett Smith and her daughter Willow outside of the Michael Kors show yesterday, as part of New York Fashion Week. I didn’t know Jada was all about Michael Kors (??) but I guess he’s still important enough to bring out some big names. I think it’s cool that Jada brought her daughter as her plus-one too – mother-daughter fashion shows must be pretty fun, and I’m saying that un-sarcastically.

Back in November of last year, Jada belatedly defended her daughter’s decision to shave her head (which happened months and months beforehand). Jada’s reasoning was solid – she basically said she, as Willow’s mother, had made the decision to raise Willow to believe that she “owned” herself and could make her own decisions about her hair, etc. She made Willow’s shaved head an issue of the power of a woman’s self-determination, a defense which is sorely underutilized. Besides all of that, there was the simple issue of “Willow shaved her head… when she was 11 years old.” Because why not?

Anyway, as you can see, Willow is growing out her hair. I think it looks good – Willow is growing up to be a very striking-looking woman, and if she stays tall and slender, I bet we’ll see her front some modeling campaigns too. But for now, Willow is reclaiming her youth and she’s not thinking about building her career, despite her father’s push. Willow dropped out of the planned remake of Annie, and here’s how Will told the story:

When Will Smith’s ambitious remake of “Annie” was first announced in January of 2011, Smith’s daughter Willow was attached to play the title little orphan. Cut to January of 2013, and Willow is off the project, which recently hired “Easy A” director Will Gluck to guide the production to the big screen. (Smith is producing “Annie” through his Overbrook Entertainment shingle.)

When Gluck’s involvement was announced last month, Deadline.com noted that “Annie” would go ahead without Willow in the lead role because the actress and singer, now 12, was too old to star. Unbeknownst to the trade, however, there was another reason.

Speaking at Temple University in Philadelphia this week, Smith revealed that his daughter asked out of the film herself.

“Willow was supposed to be doing ‘Annie,’ we got Jay-Z to do the movie, got the studio to come in and Willow had such a difficult time on tour with ‘Whip my Hair’ and she said, ‘You know Daddy, I don’t think so,'” Smith said during an event with author Sister Soulja. “I said, ‘Baby, hold up!’ I said, ‘No, no, no, listen; you’ll be in New York with all of your friends and Beyoncé will be there. You will be singing and dancing,’ and she looked at me and said, ‘Daddy, I have a better idea, how about I just be 12.'”

[From HuffPo]

You know what bothers me? When a 12 year old has to remind her father that she’s 12 years old. That speaks to Willow’s maturity and to Will’s lack of… something. I don’t know. It bugs.

Photos courtesy of Ivan Nikolov/WENN.com.

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53 Responses to “Willow Smith’s hair is grown out, punked out: awesome & righteous?”

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  1. marie says:

    she looks cute, and good on her for speaking up and just wanting to be 12, can’t fault her for that..

    and this is purely superficial but what is going on with Jada’s cheeks? Did she get implants or something?

    • Lune says:

      I think Jada actually stopped getting implants. They look deflated and more natural.

      • Yvonne says:

        You don’t “stop getting implants”. You just get them taken out. Unless, of course, she has been going in every few months and having new cheek implants put in. Well then… I suppose you’re correct.

  2. Tami says:

    Willow would be a fabulous model at 16-18. She totally has what it takes! If she gets taller. She’s growing into a beautiful girl!!!!!!!!! Love it and that her clothes are always age appropriate. Can never say that about the Jenner kids. She’s going to be gorgeous! As for Jada . Leave your face alone !

    • RHONYC says:

      ditto!
      i think she’s gonna be a gorgeous twin of papa Will! 😉

    • bigt says:

      You people must be paid by Will/Jada or else your blind. She is NOT attractive at all looks as far away from a model as I have seen. Does look a bit better with hair of course.

      • Lee says:

        ah, good to know there is a single all-knowing voice on who is or is not attractive. I guess we’re all wrong! Thanks for correcting our opinions!

  3. Dawn says:

    The girl is young and from a very rich family. She can do what she wants.

  4. Mia 4S says:

    She is lovely, but after that story I kind of hope she says to hell with modeling and becomes a marine biologist or something. I don’t doubt Will (and many other stars) are loving parents, but I think to many of them, Hollywood stardom is simply the highest pinnicle. He could literally pay for any education she wants. So many of these kids go chasing the same fame as their parents, when they already have access to the money and perks. Good for her if she has broader and more useful dreams.

  5. T.C. says:

    Hate it when the kid has to remind a parent they just want to be a kid. Good for you Willow. Loving her new do.

  6. zeldafitzgerald says:

    She is my favourite celeb kid. She is f*ing great.

  7. BB says:

    It’s not surprising how they are raising her. They’re scientologists! Just look at Suri now she’s wearing weather appropriate clothes after her parents’ divorce.

    • RocketMerry says:

      That’s something I noticed too, the way Jada said her children can determine things for themselves is typical $cie-talk *shivers*
      I do hope the kids stay as far as possible from that horrid cult.

      Also, shaving one’s head (or cutting hair very short for a period of time) is one of the dumbest $cie practices: it’s supposed to get rid of all the toxic alien particles that get stuck in one’s hair. You know. From the alien holocaust that spread miniscule parts of dead alien bodies around the world milions of years ago in one giant WTF cloud.

  8. Barrett says:

    I feel bad this kid annoys me. Go be a kid. Leave Hollywood for the grown ups.

  9. Arock says:

    She’s stunning, a perfect mix of her parents. And I really like jadas coat, she’s wearing it well.

  10. Post-It's says:

    I hate the way Will and Jada have pushed these kids into the spotlight.

  11. Miss Kiki says:

    Normally I’d be here defending Ma and Pa Smith because I genuinely never really believed that they *pushed* their kids into thee biz. I’m now totally re-thinking that and it kind of makes me sad.

    On a brighter note, for what feels like the first time in forever, Jada looks really good here.

    • Yvonne says:

      I know this sounds horrid, but both the kids have always struck me as junior famewhores. But perhaps it is the parents shoving them into fame. Makes me a bit sad too, as I think Will is a lovely actor.

  12. janie says:

    Can’t stand the brat. She looks & dresses like she is in her 20’s. Their kids do & go where ever they please. Why isn’t she in school?

  13. Cazzee says:

    Good for her. She is a beautiful child with very odd parents.

    I hope they let her go back to school now and hang out with her friends.

  14. Nanz01 says:

    I’m willing to bet Will Smith told that anecdote to show what a good dad he is, but I agree – it shows a lack of something (character, I think) that Willow had to ask/remind him to let her be 12.

    • Kim says:

      GMAB the girl changed her mind about wanting to be in Annie or being an actor.Some parents would have insisted she stick to her committment.He listened to here.There are many parents who are making kids take piano lessons,participate in sports….even though the kids no longer want to participate.Those are bad parents IMO .Respect your kids

  15. Dee says:

    I always felt that the shaving her head thing was a black issue. It is tremendously empowering for a black woman to let go of the expected process one has to go through to live up to the white standard of beauty by shaving one’s head. You people keep forgetting that, as a black girl, willow’s hair is harder to manage on a daily basis. When her mom spoke about letting willow make her own decisions about her looks, i saw it as her giving her daighter support for such a big step in getting away from comformity without turning it into a black issue for the public.

    I thought bald headed Willow looked gorgeous.

    • MonicaQ says:

      +1

      Being black I can tell you one thing–Hair. Is. Important to us. I know it seems stupid and “it’s just hair, it grows back” but that’s not how it is. I get absolutely railed by my family for not getting braids or yaki because I prefer to keep my hair short either in an afro or relaxed. It’s to the point where I don’t even go to family reunions anymore.

      My hair is important but it’s *my* hair. That’s what Jada was saying and good on her.

      • Dee says:

        Girl same here. My issues with hair started around the same age that Willow is right now. I will tell my mother that i wanted to shave my head so many times without actually going through with it.

        Then in my mid 20’s i got courageous and started growing my hair natural and sporting an afro. My family is aghast, but they all step aside because they get that all of us have to deal with the hair issue separately.

      • Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

        Damn.

        I mean, black hair is a ‘thing’ everywhere but I have to make a confession: Though we (black people) care to an extent in Canada, the extent to which Americans obsess over their hair is kind of silly to us and I guess sometimes we can be borderline snotty about it. I don’t know, maybe it’s because we don’t have the the same access to some things and the products are REALLY expensive here, but if the family is scandalized over going natural or having short hair–whatever, we would generally think that the problem is with the family, not the individual. There may be some clucking about ‘Who are they trying to be, anyway?’ Again, it’s not exactly noble and I’m black so I GET IT x100, but all of that money and time spent on hair when it needs to go to other things is brainwashing and lack of perspective and when I’m watching ‘Good Hair’ the empathy is tempered with embarrassment. I’d like to do some things with my hair that I can’t because I’m not above vanity, but COME ON!

    • Lauren says:

      I recently decide to take the scissors to my hair and chop off all the relaxed bits and stop wearing the extensions and laced front wigs. I can tell you from experience that it has been very empowering. My aunties/ grandma used to go on and on about how I looked so unattractive and had the ‘bad hair’ so to speak as a child. It wasn’t long with the nice loose curls like my sisters but ‘nappy’ with the coils. So it was always put upon as a negative thing that it is something undesirable because it wasn’t straight and long.

      After years of relaxing I am glad I shaved my head back down to it’s real texture now. Slowly I am beginning to change the way I view myself and I am starting to believe that what I see, this image of a black woman is beautiful enough.

      For others what I am saying may sound strange or even come across as self hating but it isn’t or I don’t intend for it to sound that way. I think it takes strength to go against what has been ingrained into the black community and the greater dominant society as a whole in regards to black girls when it comes to what is considered desirable and beautiful. Shaving my head was one of the best decisions I made and is doing wonders for my confidence. But it is still a working progress trying to like the natural me.

      I admire that Willow did this at eleven years old. When I was eleven I was still envious and wishing I had long straight white person hair as that to me was much more feminine and beautiful (sometimes I still think it is superior to black hair but like I said I am working on not trying to define certain types as better than other types but instead working on seeing that all traits/ things and people can be beautiful). I am now 21, so it took me so many years to become somewhat okay with the fact that maybe I can be beautiful with what I have. Kudos to Jada for actually starting to tell her daughter this while she is still young. I wish the women in my family had had the sense to do this.

      • sauvage says:

        @Lauren,

        as a white Middle-European woman I never thought much about black women’s hair because – well, it’s not exactly up my alley. But now that you wrote that, I feel slightly ashamed. To me, braids, weaves etc. were just, what do I know, parts of black culture. Didn’t bother me, everybody can do to their heads whatever they want. I didn’t realize it was a classical case of white beauty standards being imposed upon non-whites.

        What I mean to say is: More power to you. Glad to hear that you started to accept yourself for who you are. It might start with hair and then go a long way. All the best to you.

    • Yup, Me says:

      I cut all of the relaxer out of my hair when I was 15. Then I shaved my head at 22 after a trip to visit family in Europe and Africa because I wanted to challenge the attachment that I had to my own hair and what others assumed they knew about me because of my hair.

      Hair is a big deal for black women all over the globe and to varying extents. It’s something that many outsiders do not understand when they casually participate in a conversation, ask the extraordinarily rude “is that your real hair,” or try to touch a black female’s tresses and locks. I think it’s great that Willow is getting to explore who she is for herself and that her parents support that in her. It’s beautiful and inspiring.

  16. ladybert62 says:

    She looks like her father – she is not pretty and her hair is a mess – nothing to brag about.

  17. Darlene says:

    What’s going on at Jada’s temple area, by her ears…? Is it dyed? In the first pic, it almost looks blueish, but in later ones, grey. Her roots are done, so what is it? Is it just me?

  18. drolf says:

    Enough already. If she was just the kid next store she would be quirky, not a gorgeous independent trailblazer. Give me a break.

  19. RHONYC says:

    what ‘bugs’ me is what having too much damn time, money & insecurity will make a perfectly beautiful woman do to her own face.
    those horrible implants have aged Jada 20 years. ridic! 👿

    http://thefashionrecords.com/2010/08/jada-pinkett-smith-plastic-surgery/

  20. lucy2 says:

    That was my exact response when I read the story – it’s so sad that the child had to tell her father she just wanted to be a child. I give her credit for realizing that, I just hope her parents really listened. It would be great to see her set out on a path she chooses for herself, whatever that may be.

    I agree with BB that there’s some kid of CO$ stuff going on there, but somehow they’ve managed to keep it quiet.

  21. Lolly says:

    Meanwhile Will’s on a vacation with his boyfriend..

  22. MJ says:

    I think Jada looks really good here, but in the second photo of her seated you can see right up her skirt!

  23. Sandra says:

    I totally get what Will is saying. You want your children to have opportunities, and want to figure out how to make it so that they can do everything that they want to do and develop all kinds of skills and interests. My daughter wanted to be in lots of dance, so I enrolled her, to discover that it was just too much and that she wasn’t as passionate about it as she thought. After the hectic schedule, she just wanted to be home. It felt like a failure to ‘let her quit’, but made me feel good that I also didn’t hold her hostage to a commitment made by an 8 year old who doesn’t really know what she wants yet. I say good for Will for providing the opportunity, and letting it go when it proved to not be the right thing.

  24. Isla says:

    It seems I might be in the minority today but Willow is neither striking nor gorgeous – what am I missing here?

    And trust me, I love exotic, not-the-standard-beauty looking men/women but Willow simply isn’t and will not, in the future, be attractive; even in the off-beat sense.

    Props to her for telling her father she just wants to be a 12 year old but I’m willing to bet that she and Jaden are still smug and entitled.

    That, however, is a product of the way Jada and Will parent.

    • lucy says:

      Well said. And, I agree completely! Count my sister and I in your minority.

      Pushy parents, glad the kid is pushing back, but, the lot of The Family Smith is entitled, smug, and undeserving of privilege.

    • bigt says:

      This!

  25. skuddles says:

    I can’t say I find Willow particularly cute but it is refreshing to see a kid in her privileged position not dressing and behaving like a total trampola.

  26. KellyinSeattle says:

    I love her hair.

  27. KellyinSeattle says:

    I love her hair.

  28. lisa says:

    jada looks like shangela from drag race but not as feminine

    i dont like commenting on a child’s looks but im not sure why people thinks she is striking. i dont think anyone would notice her at the mall. but i do love her standing up to her scino parents. too bad they dont get her to school very often.

  29. bigt says:

    Your welcome Lee. It needed to be said.
    See many others here, see it too.

  30. Lila says:

    What is going on at Jada’s temple? Hair looks strange

  31. Nina says:

    I think willow is very cute and will be beautiful when she grows up. Funny that people feel the need to comment on her appearance while saying that they don’t like commenting on children’s appearance. To each her own ! Importantly willow seems to have a good sense of herself and I loved jadas support of her hair… To bad jada can’t be as strong in bucking the surgery

  32. april says:

    I love Willow and Jada. I think they are very classy, intelligent, and talented women.