Willow Smith is opening up about steering herself out of a dark place

Singer and actress Willow Smith just delivered a head-banging, rollicking performance as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live over the weekend. But the hits keep on coming today, as Willow revealed in a new interview just how much she struggled to get to a place where those really high performances weren't affected by dark lows.

Speaking on the SiriusXM Bevelations show with Bevy Smith, Willow revealed that being a child star caused “world-shattering fear.”

“I saw at a very young age, I saw a dark path that I could go down. You know, we’ve talked about this before. Um, I think I kind of caught myself before my coping mechanisms started too early,” the Red Table Talk co-host revealed.

Host Bevy Smith then asked, “How can you as a child deviate from these opportunities?”

Willow replied, “Then? Yeah, I was like 10, 11. I touched a sadness that I didn’t know existed. Um, and it was scary. Because I thought, ‘I’ve never felt this before. I don’t know, that’s obviously not healthy. I have to stop this before it gets to a darker, darker place.’”

“I just knew it was wrong,” she continued. “I just knew it. I just knew everything was wrong. And although I experienced fear on a daily basis, until today, in relation to my music, fear is the fear of moving up and forward. It’s not like a deep, heartbreaking fear like a world-shattering fear.” 

“I really think my higher self was like, ‘No. This is … it will be bad for you.’ And I just had to listen.”

This isn’t the first time Willow has spoken about her struggles of being in the spotlight from a very young age. Back in April, during an episode of Red Table Talk with co-host mom Jada Pinkett Smith and grandmother Adrienne Banfield Norris, Willow revealed that she suffered from anxiety from a very young, and Jada initially dismissed it, making the struggle harder.

“It was rough. I feel like when I was growing up, [mom Jada] didn’t understand my anxiety,” Willow frankly said during an episode that also featured Kim Basinger and daughter Ireland Baldwin. “That was very frustrating for me as a child. Because I was like, ‘How can you not see my internal and emotional struggle?’” 

“[My mom] was pushing it down for so many years like she had no idea. So, I had to forgive her a little bit,” Willow admitted.

As for Jada, she was forced to admit that she might not have fully supported her daughter who had the unique experience of growing up with two mega-famous actors for parents. “It took me a long time to understand Willow, I mean, just her anxiety,” she admitted.  “I had a really difficult time relating, because…her lifestyle and how she was brought up [were] very different than mine, I don’t know what it’s like to be a child under hot lights.”