Freeing Femininity: WILLOW At Reading Fest 2022

Pop-Punk artist WILLOW, otherwise known as Willow Smith, is and always has been an advocate for freeing femininity and actively questioning what it means to be a woman. 

Smith looked at ease headlining the main stage, accentuated by her experimental, emo style and unapologetic nature. Many noticed her tattooed arms and armpit hair, and questioned whether this was a bold move to challenge societal norms and the binary gender expectations thrown on young people today. However, as she has previously explained on Red Table Talk, she “didn’t really make the decision not to shave, I just kind of didn’t shave.” 

Being thrown into the limelight at a very young age, surrounded by her celebrity family and releasing the infamous "Whip My Hair" in 2010, WILLOW had many comments made about her appearance and sexuality from strangers around the world at the young age of 10. In an interview with Harper's Bazaar in 2019, she stated "That's when I started realising that in the world, there's a category of what's feminine and what's not" and “it didn't feel right, trying to tell me what a feminine person should act like and what a woman should act like.” Willow is paving the way for all women to freely express themselves, as well as pushing forward into an astonishing music career.

Not only has she recently collaborated with artists such as Pink Pantheress and The Anxiety, on September 23rd, she is releasing her fifth solo studio album COPINGMECHANISM, which features her most recent single “hover like a GODDESS.” Be sure to listen when it drops, because judging by the rest of her discography, you do not want to miss out.

Just one last thing. In the wise words of WILLOW on Genius, "If you judge yourself, you judge others, and if you judge others, you judge yourself.”

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