Jaden Smith is in the new Netflix show The Get Down. Have you been watching it? I have not. It’s not that I’m not interested in seeing some of it, just to get a taste. It’s just that there’s so much other sh-t going on that I just haven’t seen it yet. In any case, to promote the show, Jaden did a “Young Hollywood” cover for Variety. And he talked about how he always knew he was going to be different, ever since he was a baby. Because babies remember. Babies are self-aware and they remember.

Jaden has always been an outsider: “I’ve always looked at life differently. I always knew no one was going to understand me — since before I could talk — and that’s why I was so quiet. I was very calm, very to myself. I could tell I felt about life differently than other kids; I could tell by the way they treated me.”

His style: “I’ve always been super-duper fly and super-duper different. People just start caring when they have a reason to start caring,” he says, and cites his style icons: Andy Warhol, the Joker, Poseidon, and Spike from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

His clothing line, MSFTSrep: When asked to elaborate on the collective, Smith says, “It’s pronounced ‘misfits.’ I took the ‘I’ out of ‘misfits’ because we’re a team and there is no ‘I’ in team. It’s a place for the lost kids and everyone to go, and something for them to have.” He says it’s created for “the girl that wants to be a tomboy or the boy that wants to wear a skirt, and people try to condemn. We’re here for you. Tell us your stories. If someone at your school’s trying to pick on you, it doesn’t matter because Jaden Smith’s got your back.”

Who does he credit for his strong sense of self? “My parents, of course. My parents told me that the world was harsh and that we had to be strong within ourselves.”

[From Variety]

“I always knew no one was going to understand me — since before I could talk — and that’s why I was so quiet.” In case you couldn’t tell, I’ve sort of done a 180 on Willow and Jaden. I used to think they were such annoying kids, but now I find them sort of daffy and charming. I mean, that quote is just Peak Jaden. He’s marching to the beat of his own drummer and it’s fine. Good for him. Of course, there’s a darker angle to that quote too – Scientologists have all of these theories about babies and what babies remember, so it could be that Jaden is just regurgitating some Scientology crap that he was taught (instead of going to a proper school).

Photos courtesy of Variety.