Actor Will Smith’s son Jaden Smith not only has a reputation for donning feminine apparel, he’s made a career out of it.
His father Will, who first rose to fame as the goofy teen in “Fresh Prince of Belair,” has spent much of his career playing masculine leading-man roles in action flicks. So how does the former dabbler in Scientology feel about his son’s penchant for more feminine clothing? BET recently asked Will what advice he had for parents of gender fluid kids.
“What I do with my children, that I feel that the greatest gift that I can give my children is the freedom to be who they are,” he said. “Jada and I are very serious about finding what they are, and encouraging them to be what they are because you can never be happy being what you’re not.”
Will added that there’s no point trying to make kids something that’s not authentic to who they are.
“I feel like a lot of times, when I was growing up, I would see parents force a child to be what you want them to be,” he explained. “As a parent, if it’s an oak tree, I want it to grow as an oak tree. I’m not gonna try to force it to be an apple tree.”
Jade served this year as a face of Louis Vuitton’s womenswear campaign and strutted his stuff in a skirt for Vogue Korea.
“I feel like people are kind of confused about gender norms. I feel like people don’t really get it,” Jaden told Nylon. “I’m not saying that I get it, I’m just saying that I’ve never seen any distinction.”
