Saint/@warwicksaintWhen you gather around this table, things always get personal.
Back in May of 2018, Willow Smith appeared on the second episode of her mom Jada Pinkett Smith's Facebook Watch series titled Red Table Talk.
During the candid episode, Willow confessed to going through a tough period that led to self-harm.
"I was just plunged into this black hole and I was like cutting myself," the "Whip My Hair" singer shared. "Totally lost my sanity for a moment there."
Fast-forward to today and the 18-year-old is glad she was so open and honest with her family and strangers alike.
"I think by far [the hardest episode to film] would had to have been the episode where I was talking about my self-harm. I mean nobody wants to come out and tell the whole world about that but I felt that was very important for other girls or boys that are going through that as well for me to come out and talk about my life," she shared in a new video for ESSENCE. "But it's never easy."
In ESSENCE's March "Innovation Issue," Willow joins Jada Pinkett-Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris on the cover. And with Women's History Month approaching, the publication wanted to shine a light on women who embody excellence across generations.
When discussing the success of Red Table Talk, Willow admitted that she's learned a lot about relationships and the dynamics between male and female. She also learned a valuable lesson about not being a victim of your past.
"I think the most surprising thing I've learned being on the show is that no matter what you go through, no matter how dark that is in your past or in your childhood or the things that you went through, you can come out amazing and still do even more and be even more successful," she shared.
As for the best advice Jada has passed on to her daughter, it's simple but oh-so-sweet: "Do you boo boo."
"It's always stuck with me. It's so simple but I feel like it encompasses the core of most of the internal issues that I face in my life. It's always don't care about what anyone else thinks. You have to be yourself," Willow shared. "You have to do what makes you happy. I feel like that's a core of a lot of issues that people have internally in their life is caring too much about what people think and not putting themselves first and their happiness and their spiritual evolution first."
Check out the ESSENCE March issue when it hits newsstands on February 22.