The Tragic Story Of Willow Smith Is So Sad

She shot to fame when she was just 10 with her hit song "Whip My Hair," which landed her a slot on Justin Bieber's 2011 world tour. Now, Willow Smith is all grown up, and her life, despite her early fame, hasn't exactly been without obstacles. She's made strange headlines, one of which was in August 2025 after she posted a tearful selfie to her Instagram Stories with the caption, "Who ate all the p***y?" (via The New York Post). While some of her fans assumed it was a joke, others expressed concern over the singer's well-being, and some even asserted that Willow's parents, Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, did a terrible job raising her. Willow would later clarify that the post was supposed to be a quip. Clearly, it didn't land with many of her fans.

As it turns out, Willow has had plenty to cry about over the years. She's been open about how she has felt at odds with her famous parents at times. "I always knew I was very different from my parents," she told The Guardian in 2022. This has caused some friction, especially when Willow got her first taste of fame. Then there's the fact that she's had to deal with her parents' public blunders, most notably her father's. The 2022 Oscars weren't the first time Will Smith slapped someone at a high-profile event, but it sure dominated headlines, and people expected Willow to comment on it. When The Guardian brought it up, she made it clear she didn't want to discuss it. "I love my dad," was her response.

From having to deal with the anxiety that comes with fame to navigating a tricky relationship with her parents, Willow's path to success has been riddled with challenges.

In his memoir "Will," Will Smith revealed plenty of things about his life that fans never knew, and that included a tidbit about Willow Smith's rise to fame. The actor shared how he initially tried to push her to keep touring after she told him she no longer wanted to, and how his daughter acted out to show him she wasn't taking no for an answer.

"I'm finished, Daddy. I'm ready to go home," Willow told her dad after the last show of the European leg of Bieber's tour. Will tried to explain to her that she's signed up for more shows with Jay-Z, to which Willow responded, "It doesn't matter to you that I'm finished, Daddy?" He explained that he heard her, but that they'd made a commitment (via Entertainment Weekly). Willow proceeded to shave her head that night, knowing that having no hair left to whip would probably send the message to her dad that she was, indeed, done. "My jaw nearly dislocated, dislodged, and shattered on the kitchen floor: my world-dominating, hair-whipping, future global superstar was totally bald," Will recalled in his book.

"I saw at a very young age ... the dark path I could have gone down," Willow told SiriusXM's "Bevelations" in 2022. "I think I kind of caught myself before my coping mechanisms started too early ... I feel like if I hadn't ... there might have been some earlier tragedies." Willow doubled down on these sentiments in an interview with The Guardian that same year, admitting she felt like her life was spinning out of control at just 11 years old. "That was the part that wasn't cool for me. I felt so powerless," she explained.

Given that her father tried to push her to continue touring when she was just a kid who wanted to live a kid's life, it should come as no surprise that Willow Smith felt unsupported by her parents in the early days of her career. Speaking to Vulture about the night she shaved her hair in an attempt to get her father to listen to her pleas to stop touring, Willow recalled, "I was very nervous because it was like, 'Dang, am I gonna miss my hair?' But then I didn't care. I really could not have cared less. That was such a transformational point for me."

Willow didn't quite understand what she was feeling at the time, but looking back, she knows she was dealing with anxiety. Her parents didn't understand what was happening initially and thought she was simply throwing a tantrum. Willow's mom, Jada Pinkett Smith, said in an episode of her Facebook Watch show, "Red Table Talk," that she didn't initially see Willow's anxiety for what it was because she couldn't relate to it, having never experienced childhood fame herself.

Willow, who felt deeply wounded by her parents' lack of support, has admitted that she harbored a grudge against them for years after the incident. During an episode of "Red Table Talk," she told Jada, "I definitely had to forgive you and daddy for that whole 'Whip My Hair' thing. It was mostly daddy because he was so harsh at certain times. ... It was a couple of years, honestly. Trying to regain trust for not feeling like I was being listened to or like no one cared how I felt" (via People).

Willow Smith and her mother, Jada Pinkett Smith, might have a close relationship now, but the two didn't get along so well when Willow was younger. During a September 2020 episode of Red Table Talk, Willow opened up about her relationship with her mother, who admitted that she used shame as a parenting tool when Willow was a kid. Jada expressed regret over doing so, admitting she didn't know any better at the time.

Willow admitted that she remembered those instances well, recalling, "When I was younger, I would just get super emotional. I still get super emotional now. You would look at me, and you would just be like, 'You can cry but go to your room and do it over there.' You pushing me away for crying was like I'm a bad person for crying.'" Willow added that she forgave Jada, who, in turn, admitted that it was challenging to deal with Willow's emotions because she had a hard time facing her own.

A lot of the friction between the mother-daughter duo also stemmed from Jada's gentle parenting approach when it came to Willow's brother, Jaden Smith. In an October 2020 episode of Red Table Talk, Willow recalled how her mother would sometimes give preferential treatment to her brother while putting more pressure on her to be perfect. Jada explained that this was a result of her wanting to toughen up her daughter because being a Black woman comes with many challenges. "For me, I knew that she's gonna have it twice as hard," Jada said. "I needed you to be strong because I know what this world is like for us as Black women."

Something many fans might not know about Willow Smith is that, like many ordinary kids, she didn't have the best time at school. This was mostly because she was dealing with mental health issues at the time and couldn't really relate to her peers.

Willow's close relationship with her brother, Jaden Smith, was on full display during a candid 2014 interview with The New York Times, during which the songstress admitted that she had complicated feelings about her school days. "I went to school for one year. It was the best experience but the worst experience," she admitted. "The best experience because I was like, 'Oh, now I know why kids are so depressed.' But it was the worst experience because I was depressed." Jaden agreed with his sister, quipping, "You never learn anything in school."

Speaking to Vulture in 2017, Willow touched on the topic again, saying she had a hard time relating to people her age, which was likely a result of her not having a typical high school experience. "I've decided that just as much as I am a part of this generation, I'm not," she admitted. "Even the language that kids nowadays use, I'm just not used to it. I use some of it and I understand some of it, but it's starting to evolve in a way that I'm just not connected to."

During a 2021 interview with The Face, Willow elaborated on why she doesn't connect with Gen Z, and it has a lot to do with what she deems to be narcissistic behavior from her peers. "We think that everything is about us when in reality, it's really not," she explained.

It should come as no surprise that Willow Smith became all too familiar with the concept of racism at a young age. She saw it directed at her mother while she was accompanying her on some of her tour dates for her band Wicked Wisdom. Backstage, some people were openly hostile towards Jada Pinkett Smith. "I got to see people get very rowdy and say some things that you should never hear somebody say to your own mother," Willow recalled during a 2022 interview with Billboard. "She was putting herself in the crossfire of hate ... and she put her heart on the stage for people who didn't deserve it." Willow said Jada eventually dealt with some health issues because of the stress she endured during that time.

Speaking with L'Officiel in 2021, Willow recalled the adversity her mother faced simply because she was a Black woman in the entertainment industry — both physically and mentally. "It was intense racism and sexism, just packed on to the tens. People giving her death threats, throwing glass at her onstage. Some crazy stuff went down when she was touring with her band," Willow disclosed. "It was so scary to me, and I think I internalized a little bit."

Willow would later deal with the reality of discrimination herself when she expressed her desire to make rock music. Music executives weren't exactly jumping up and down with excitement at the idea. "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," she told Glamour in 2022.

Willow Smith's critically acclaimed album "Coping Mechanism," which she released in 2022, was, quite literally, a coping mechanism for the singer. She's since opened up about what really went on behind the scenes while she made the album, admitting that she wasn't exactly in a good headspace while recording it.

"I was deeply heartbroken," she told Hello! "I was getting blackout drunk almost every session for that album, and I was just in a bad spot. I was in a bad place." She added that she is determined not to go back to that dark place, not even as a source of inspiration for an album. Aside from overindulging in alcohol, she also smoked weed and quickly realized she shouldn't keep it up. "After making the album, I've been sober," she told The Fader.

That doesn't mean she won't show any vulnerability, however. Willow recalled that one of her cousins once observed that she never seemed to experience sadness. Willow quickly set the record straight, saying, "Sometimes I get really, really sad."

In May 2024, Willow Smith told Variety that she was very excited to join Childish Gambino on his world tour. "Childish Gambino is one of the most prolific visionaries of this generation. It's an honor to be with him in any shape or form," she enthused.

Unfortunately, Willow didn't get to finish the tour with Gambino because the latter dealt with health issues that forced him to postpone the remaining tour dates. Some of the shows were previously canceled because of his health, while others had to be canceled due to technical issues. The singer took to X to break the news, penning, "Hey everyone. unfortunately i have to postpone the rest of the north american tour to focus on my physical health for a few weeks," (via Hello!). Gambino assured fans their tickets will be good for the rescheduled dates.

Not getting to finish the tour must have been a blow for Willow, who didn't publicly comment on the development at the time. It wasn't clear whether she would still appear at the rescheduled tour dates, but in the end, Gambino had to cancel the remainder of his tour, telling fans on X, "I could not perform the rest of the U.S. tour in the time asked. As of now I have surgery scheduled and need time out to heal" (via NBC News).

During a 2021 interview with Yungblud on BBC Sounds, Willow Smith spoke candidly about her mental health and her battle with anxiety, which she said started around the same time she released "Whip My Hair." Not only did she feel afraid and unsafe in her music career back then, but she also experienced the same feelings once more when she decided to step back into the entertainment industry after taking a long break.

Willow told Yungblud that she had an anxiety attack before a performance during those early years, but that the adults she was surrounded with didn't realize what was happening. "[I was] basically feeling like everyone around me was like, 'You're just a brat ... Why aren't you grateful?' ... They didn't see it as an anxiety attack, they saw it as a tantrum," Willow recalled. She admitted that those anxious feelings still creep in and that she constantly has to remind herself that she's not that little kid anymore.

Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2023, Willow said that, for a while, her anxiety became her entire personality, and she had to face those feelings and realize they didn't define her. "Sometimes we need to sit there and be like, 'Loneliness, okay, I see you. Anxiety, okay, I see you,'" she explained.

When your parents are Hollywood royalty, the pressure to live up to people's expectations can be crushing. Just ask Willow Smith. She's admitted that having famous parents and unlimited resources for success at her disposal has been anxiety-inducing at times. "I constantly felt as though there was something I had to do because of the resources that I was given," she told Vulture. "That personally shifted my perspective in all situations because I always felt like I had to take the high road and be the helper. I still do."

She touched on the subject during an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 as well, acknowledging that she didn't want to disappoint her parents and continue their legacy. "I felt a lot of pressure," Willow said (via E! News), but added that she's since started to focus more on where she's going than trying to live up to her parents' legacy. "I'm not a minor anymore, I'm finding the freedom to — I can put that beauty in the world," she said.