Willow Smith Opens Up About Her Childhood Anxiety Battle And Forgiving Her Mom

Willow Smith, the youngest child of the Smiths, has been attributed to being a breath of fresh air, with knowledge far beyond her years.

When she's not making music, she hosts the "Red Table Talk" alongside her mother, Jada Pinkett Smith, and grandma, Adrienne Banfield-Norris.

However, Jada Pinkett and Willow haven't always had the best of relationships, despite popular opinion.

Recently, while hosting the red table, Willow talked about her mental health, parents, and more. 

Willow certainly didn't hold back as she vented about her childhood frustrations. More specifically, she mentioned that she had to forgive her mom for downplaying her anxiety struggle. Read on for more details about the disclosure.

The 21-year-old singer recently opened up on the "Red Table Talk" about her childhood and how her anxiety wasn't taken seriously by her mom.

According to Willow, her mom tried and failed to understand her struggles since Pinkett had been through a lot herself. She mentioned that her childhood was rough because her mom could not see the "emotional struggle" she was going through.

"It was rough," Willow recalled. "I feel like when I was growing up, she [Jada] didn't understand my anxiety. Because she, growing up, had seen her friends die. She had been through so much stuff that like my issues to her kind of felt like [smaller]."

She continued, "And that was very frustrating for me as a child. Because I was like, 'How can you not see my internal and emotional struggle?'"

However, Willow recently addressed her anxiety with her mom, who mentioned that she had no idea her daughter experienced any mental health disorder. Willow then decided to forgive her mother for downplaying her anxiety.

"Really recently, we had a talk and she was like, 'I never knew that I actually experienced anxiety,'" Willow added. "And she was pushing it down and pushing it down for so many years. Like, she had no idea. So I kind of had to forgive her a little bit for being like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it, but like, it's really not that bad.'"

Before this time, the "Meet Me At Our Spot" crooner had previously opened up about her anxiety episodes and how they impacted her professional life.

Last July, she explained on "The YUNGBLUD" podcast how she felt a deep sense of insecurity and unsafety in her career, adding that "she didn't feel protected."

She also mentioned that while performing on "The Jimmy Fallon" show, she had a flashback of one of her childhood anxiety attacks. However, this was referred to as a "tantrum" by most people watching.

"They didn't see it as an anxiety attack, they saw it as a tantrum. Now, I look back and know it was an anxiety attack," she added. "And so when I'm in these situations now and have those flashbacks, I need to separate myself from the situation for a little bit and tell myself, 'You're not nine, you're a grown a-- woman.'"

After she released her first hit, "Whip My Hair," which she released at the tender age of nine, she disclosed that she didn't want to finish her album because she spiraled into a dark place.

She claimed that after the fame surrounding her song settled down, she started to listen to a lot of "dark music." She admitted that it was so crazy as she "plunged into a dark hole" and started cutting herself.

"It was after that whole "Whip My Hair" thing and I had just stopped doing singing lessons and I kind of was in this gray area of: Who am I? Do I have a purpose? Is there anything I can do besides this?"

She also confessed per the Huffington post that she didn't mention any of this to her parents, given it was a "short, weird" period of her life, and she could pull herself out of it.

In 2020, Willow and her partner, Tyler Cole, released an album called "The Anxiety." The album focused on anxiety and how to deal with it.

"I am infinitely grateful for this process and all the support that @existentialcrisisboy and I have received // Special S/O to all the beautiful folks who came out to experience our performance art at The GEFFEN Contemporary @moca it was truly a magical experience for me // I hope the vibrations from these songs soothes your heart like your love and support soothes mine," she wrote in an Instagram post about the release of the song.

To promote the song, Willow and Cole depicted several emotions that they had experienced, including anxiety, paranoia, compassion, and acceptance, while staying in a glass box in a Los Angeles museum.