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Willow Smith debuted her new video for her song “I Am Me” during Sunday night’s BET Awards pre-show, and in comparison to her first releases, which were very high pop energy, it’s a more simple and mature ballad where we get to hear her show off her vocal abilities as she touts the importance of being yourself. On the song’s direction, she shared, “It’s just explaining who I am and what symbolizes me -- like me as an energy, me as a person, just cool and rounded.”

 

I, too, wanted to be free at age 11, but I’m not sure in the way of having the emotional clarity to remind my peers that the world extended beyond my middle school classrooms and would open in response as I did. Big things happen when your dad is Will Smith, I guess.

 

The video was shot in various places around New York City, including on the New York High Line and in Washington Square Park, where Willow sings her heart out and plays a small keyboard as people walk and drive by. She is casually outfitted in a hat, jeans, and an oversized yellow button down that could have come straight off her father circa 1991. That thrown in front of some graffiti-splattered walls and we have a clear inspiration source...

 

 

 

Willow certainly doesn’t seem to be holding much of her personality back from us. From an array of music and style choices, to a scandalous Instagram tongue-ring photo fake-out, we’re learning a lot. Here’s to her advanced reminders to look within ourselves.

 

“Night falls and I find I am in peace / I’ve been looking / Making friends with spirits lost, and it sets me free / I’ve been looking / Express myself 'cause it’s my liberty / I’ve been looking / Your validation it’s just not that important to me...”

 

 

- Kate Ferguson, YH Staff