Just Whip It

Everyone knows the Smith family as Hollywood royalty. You've got Will, himself of course. How could you forget his ludicrous , outrageous 20 year old self as the self proclaimed Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Then there's his wife Jada Pinkett, the two actually met on the set of the show. She's the bold, assertive, athletic, and spunky one. The couple have two kids together, Jaden and Willow. Both of the kids, have played alongside their parents in numerous roles from critically aclaimed films such as The Pursuit of Happiness and I Am Legend. However, their daughter Willow, who is now 13, took the biggest step when she made her musical debut in late 2010, with the hit single "Whip my hair". The world was astonished at the fact that such pipes were bursting out of her then 9-year old body. I remember I was. Soon after she slowly dissapeared from the music industry, on account of rumors saying she was to young to pursue a career in music, which may or may not have been true. Not only was her young age a product of backlash, but also her style sense channeled a Grace Jones, afro-punk theme. She has a shaved head dyed with flurescent colors. She appeared to look like a rebellious teenager without actually being one. Her parents were intially seen as the one to blame for this "radical" behavior. It seems as though a shock that her child of her status and in her position would not want to pursue a hyper-femine look , despite the fact she had all the connections and money to plead any designer she wanted. Then the speculations of her homosexuality began to arise. It followed the notion that children not following certain gender expectations at a young age, are automatically deemed gay, because that must be the only reason as to why they may not want to wear pink and play with ponies or smash toy trucks together in the front yard. Parents are seen as the ones in charge of this , as masculinty or femininty is there job to "craft", and when it fails to be transmitted , it shows their trial and error as a parent. That is why the Will and Jada were seen as though they lacked parental guidance for their children because the kids displayed no signs or normalcy , of other kids their same age.
Now that we have decoded what intially caused it , let's take Willow's blackness into acount.
Willow's appearence stands out with the fact she has a shaved head, skateboards, has piercings , she often sings in her songs about being free and not needing any validation for how she dresses. This general discussion of her puberty shows that unlike other stars who come out in a way that does not receive constant backlash such as Raven Symone, Willow's pre-teen exposure has been deemed provacative because it is seen as hypersexual. As a girl, her body is seen as a communal object that is property of others to critique and analyze. The idea of someone her age being gay seems outrageous because of the fact young girls her age are seen to be asexual, similarily to the lives of disabled people. Kids feel emotions in relation to their personal identity just as adults do. Their feelings are no less authentic then ours.
In her new video she is singing the words "I am free,  I am free, your validation is just not that important to me". Earlier that same year in 2011 , Willow decided to shave her head. Yes. Apparently shaving a child's head is worthy of news today. But what was even more amazing was how supportive her parents were . Will Smith commented , "We let Willow cut her hair. 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 has got to have command of her body. So when she goes out into the world, she’s going out with a command that it 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."
Teaching young girls they have control over their bodies?? That's insane 
Will and his daughter's statements were both important and powerful. To have such assurance and confidence in your appearence at 13 is amazing, and even better, to have a father justify his own daughter's choices about her own body seems like a dream. Does Willow Smith stand as a new role model for blgbt youth?? thoughts?