Willow Smith, the precocious preteen daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, raised more than a few unpierced eyebrows recently when she tweeted out an Instagram picture of herself with what appeared to be a tongue stud.
Willow has never shied away from wild choices when it comes to her appearance: in the past she has shaved her head, and dyed her hair many different colours. Going to the extent of getting a very adult-themed body piercing, though, seemed a much more extreme move than a different hairstyle. According to California law, anyone under the age of majority must have parental consent before undergoing body piercing, so if it was real, Willow would have needed an “okay” from her famous parents beforehand.
In a recent interview with Parade magazine, her father stated that he felt it was important to allow her to make her own choices about her appearance: “We let Willow cut her hair,” he said. “When you have a little girl, it's like how can you teach her that you're in control of her body? If I teach her that I'm in charge of whether or not she can touch her hair, she's going to replace me with some other man when she goes out in the world. She can't cut my hair but that's her hair. She has got to have command of her body. So when she goes out into the world, she's going out with a command that is hers. She is used to making those decisions herself. We try to keep giving them those decisions until they can hold the full weight of their lives."
It would appear that allowing Willow to make decisions about her hair style and clothing may be the extent of her freedom at the moment, though. Shortly after, in an apparent response to the shocked comments, the friend in the original picture tweeted out a similar shot using the hashtags #dontjudge, #dontberude, #justhavingfun, and #fake.
Do Will and Jada have the right idea about their daughter’s body autonomy, or does “Willow Reign” need to be reined in?
The Wonderful Cynthia Hill is filling in this week so our hard-working Mummy Buzz can take a much-needed break.
In between ballet lasses, Glee Club lessons, swimming lessons, and karate lessons (none of them hers), mom of four Cynthia Hill works full-time as an administrative assistant, does the occasional community theatre production, edits other people's stuff, and writes her own, like her novel, Idol Hands. Her new book should be available later this summer.
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