Willow Smith Explains Why She Stepped Away from Career Opportunities When She Was a Kid

Willow Smith is opening up about starting a career at a young age and why she decided to step away from opportunities.

The 21-year-old singer, who is the daughter of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, was slated to play the title role in the 2014 remake of the musical Annie, but she decided to quit the job.

Click inside to find out what she said…

“I saw at a very young age. I saw the, I saw the dark path I could have gone down. You know, we were kind of speaking about that before. Um, I think I kind of caught myself before, before my coping mechanisms started too early,” Willow said during an interview on SiriusXM’s Bevelations. “Um, and that’s just never fun. Um, and I knew I needed to be a kid. I knew, you know me.”

Host Bevy Smith asked her, “How do you as a child step away from these opportunities? Like, you know, your dad famously talks about like, you came to his room and you were like, ‘Yeah, not so much.’ Like, how do you know to do that as a, as a, what were you 11?”

Willow responded, “At the time? Yeah, I was like 10, 11. Um, going, going into 12, um, I, I had touched a sadness that I didn’t know existed. Um, and that was terrifying. Because I was like, ‘I’ve never felt this before. I don’t know, this is obviously not healthy. Um, and I need to stop this before it becomes a darker, a darker place.’ And realistically in my young mind, I really didn’t know. I just knew it felt wrong. I just knew it. I just knew everything felt wrong. And even though I experienced fear in my everyday life, still today pertaining to my music, the fear is, is an upward and forward motion fear. It’s not a like deep, heartbreaking, like world-shattering fear. Um, so it’s so interesting. I mean, people ask me about this and I really just think my, my, my higher self was like, ‘No. This is, this is, this is going to go bad for you.’ Um, yeah. And I just had to listen.”

Did you catch Willow‘s performance on SNL this past weekend?