Willow Smith Struggled After “Whip My Hair” & Admits To Self-Harming

We’ve all watched as the pressures of stardom has caused child entertainers to succumb to destructive vices. Some of their habits, bad behaviors, and poor decisions continue well into their adulthood and for those that don’t have positive influences in their lives, the results can become catastrophic. Willow Smith shared her story with PEOPLE magazine in their latest issue where she, her mother Jada Pinkett Smith, and her grandmother Adrienne Banfield-Norris were interviewed for the cover feature.

At 10-years-old, Willow followed in the musical footsteps of both her father, Will Smith, and her mother when she released her single “Whip My Hair.” The 2010 song went on to become a hit, and before she knew it, the pre-teen was touring the globe. However, the sudden burst of fame was a difficult adjustment for the young girl.

“I was super young, and I had a dream, but all I really wanted to do was sing and I didn’t equate that with all the business and the stress that ended up coming with it,” the now-18-year-old said. “I was just like, ‘Whoa, this is not the life that I want’.” Two years after dropping the single, Willow chose to shave her head because she believed “it was the perfect way to rebel.” By the time she reached her early teens, she began self-harming by cutting herself.

Willow claims the act was “a physical release of all the intangible pain that’s happening in your heart and in your mind,” but once she began reading books about science and spirituality, she stopped inflicting self-pain. “I was like, ‘This is pointless — my body is a temple,’ and I completely stopped. It seemed literally psychotic after a certain point because I had learned to see myself as worthy.”