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Jaden Smith is the August 2016 cover model for Nylon Magazine. Between starting conversations due to his gender-fluid dressing and becoming the face of Louis Vuitton…womenswear, at 17-years-young, he has made quite a statement.

Wearing skirts on multiple occasions, he is comfortable in the freedom of being a gender-nonconforming teen in the way he expresses his style and taste. When asked where he draws his confidence from, he replies, “You just have to believe in yourself, you know. The world is going to keep bashing me for whatever I do, and I’m going to keep not caring. I’m going to keep doing the same things — I’m going to keep doing more things.”

From starring in movies, having pensive Twitter updates, challenging social norms, and even his own clothing line…he continues to flourish and grow.

Aware of his public platform, he is not bothered by the people who make fun of him.

“I’m going to take the most blows for my fellow MSFTS. So, you know, in five years, when a kid goes to school wearing a skirt, he won’t get beat up and kids won’t get mad at him. It just doesn’t matter. I’m taking the brunt of it so that later on, my kids and the next generations of kids will all think that certain things are normal that weren’t expected before my time.”

 

It’s almost shocking, that at 17, he’s so self-aware, and self-sacrificing, in attempts to do better for the greater good. In pursuit of doing more things, he’s starring in the new Netflix created series, The Get Down, about the birth of hip-hop in the late 1970’s in New York. The opportunity to essentially, “time travel” through acting back to the 70s have increased his self-awareness on the effects of the Internet.

“They were more dedicated to learning and I feel like that is not something that we necessarily have right now. People would go to record stores and actually buy the records they wanted. They would go to bookstores and read up on Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Gandhi, and all these different people. And now we just have the internet to do everything for us.”

17. Self-aware. Curious. Unafraid. Jaden Smith is truly a force to be reckoned with.

You can read the full interview and see the entire editorial, here.

Jaden Smith Discusses Self-Esteem, Bearing The Burden And The Problem With The Internet  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com