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Jaden Smith Has Used His Gender Fluid Style To Build His Personal Brand, Dad Will Says It’s All About Freedom [Video]

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 12:04 PST, Dec 26, 2016

Jaden Smith, the 18-year-old son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, has really come into his own in 2016. Transitioning from child to adult, the teen has embraced his personal gender fluid style to build a lucrative brand and fund his lavish lifestyle. From wearing dresses and skirts to designing gender-bending clothing in his own right to being the first male face of Louis Vuitton’s women’s clothing, Jaden Smith isn’t shy about showing off his feminine side.

That aversion to the “typical” gender norms (at least when it comes to fashion) has kept Jaden Smith’s name on everyone’s lips and made the multi-talented young star a millionaire many times over. In fact, in June, it was reported that Jaden had amassed a personal fortune of $8 million in his own right – and before his 18th birthday.

Jaden Smith’s eccentric, boundary-pushing personal style has also made this newly-adult child of Hollywood royalty something of a target for trolls and bullies. Over the summer, a summer that could quite accurately be dubbed “the summer of Jaden Smith,” Jaden was relentlessly targeted by death rumors and suicide hoaxes. The fake news came and went in waves, and was incredibly sophisticated and self-perpetuating on social media.

Just when Jaden Smith fans caught their breath and realized that their boy was still alive, a new round of death rumors would hit social media. Many claimed that Jaden had committed suicide, and a good portion of those claims included Jaden Smith’s budding sexuality as the reason behind his decision to end his life.

Of course, Jaden, singer, actor, designer, activist, and model, didn’t actually die over the summer, let alone end his own life. But the vehemence of the suicide hoaxes made it clear that the world has taken notice of Jaden Smith and his budding gender-fluidity.

Jaden’s dad, Will, on the other hand, crafted his position among the Hollywood elite by forever portraying the macho “man’s man.” Ever sexy and nearly always the leading man, Jaden Smith’s dad got his start as a teen on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and has personally faced his own pervasive set of rumors throughout his career. Like Jaden, Will Smith often saw his sexuality called into question over the years. Will has always denied the gay rumors, and now he’s speaking out in defense of son Jaden.

As LGBTQ Nation reports, Will Smith recently answered questions about Jaden’s gender-bending. Specifically, he was asked if he had any advice for parents of kids like Jaden Smith; the gender fluid kids, the misfits, the non-conformists.

“What I do with my children, that I feel that the greatest gift that I can give my children is the freedom to be who they are. Jada and I are very serious about finding what they are, and encouraging them to be what they are because you can never be happy being what you’re not. I feel like a lot of times, when I was growing up, I would see parents force a child to be what you want them to be. As a parent, if it’s an oak tree, I want it to grow as an oak tree. I’m not gonna try to force it to be an apple tree.”

To hear Jaden Smith tell the story, he’s really flourished into his own person because of the freedom Will and Jada have allowed and has even incorporated his dad’s life lessons into his signature clothing line, MSFTSRep. A clothing line that, like Jaden Smith, is marketed as “gender neutral.”

As Teen Vogue reports, Jaden incorporated much of Will Smith’s parenting philosophy into his clothing line, a label created not just so that the “misfits” would have something to wear, but also so that they would know that they’re not alone.

“It’s pronounced ‘misfits.’ I took the ‘I’ out of ‘misfits’ because we’re a team and there is no ‘I’ in team. It’s a place for the lost kids and everyone to go, and something for them to have. [MSFTS is for] the girl that wants to be a tomboy or the boy that wants to wear a skirt, and people try to condemn. We’re here for you. Tell us your stories. If someone at your school’s trying to pick on you, it doesn’t matter because Jaden Smith’s got your back.”

To hear Will tell the story, he appears rightly proud of his successful, gender fluid, and unapologetic son. As for Jaden Smith, he continues to work his unique signature style to his best advantage. After a summer owning social media and celebrity news, Jaden Smith just dropped his long-anticipated music video, Fallen, to rave reviews.

[Featured Image by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images for MTV]

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