As lavish as it might seem being born into Hollywood royalty, there’s a lot of pressure on the shoulders of nepo babies. Siblings Jaden and Willow Smith know this all to well, as their parents Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have been walking red carpets and causing controversies at award shows for decades. Though they got involved in the entertainment industry as children (Willow’s acting debut was in 2007’s I Am Legend alongside her father), the brother-sister duo has made a point to carve out their own lane instead of following in their parent’s footsteps. While she’s an undeniably talented musician, there’s been talk of Willow Smith’s college plans over the years, suggesting she could take a hiatus from the studio to pursue other fields.
The 23-year-old comes from an affluent family, but still, she’s made a name for herself as a singer, actress and visionary. Her first single, “Whip My Hair” blew up in 2010; in 2024, Smith continues to impress on her Empathogen LP, which Vogue Australia described as “her most soul-baring album.” The creative bug bit the California native from an early age, as she once told the New York Times she’s been writing books since childhood. “There’s no novels that I like to read so I write my own novels, and then I read them again, and it’s the best thing,” she told the publication in 2014.
Everything We Know About Willow Smith’s College Aspirations
In that same interview, Willow Smith’s college applications appeared to be the last thing on her mind. Instead, she and Jaden lamented about kids who go to “normal school” being “teenager and angsty.” The songstress added, “They never want to do anything, they’re so tired… I went to school for one year. It was the best experience but the worst experience. The best experience because I was like, ‘Oh, now I know why kids are so depressed.’ But it was the worst experience because I was depressed.”
As she spent her teenage years in the spotlight finding her identity, Smith was excited about the idea of attending MIT one day by 2016. At the time, she spoke with Teen Vogue about visiting the Cambridge campus as a 15-year-old. “It was nice to be able to talk to female students and professors about science and logic because that’s just such a man’s world,” the “Meet Me At Our Spot” hitmaker reflected.
The next year, she spoke with Vulture about still having her eye set on the prestigious institution. “I know that at one point in my life, I’m going to go to college for both music and physics,” Smith confidently said. “I have a physics class where I invite all of my friends and we ask questions about the universe,” she shared. Even if she’s not back in the classroom quite yet, it’s obvious that higher learning and self-exploration have long been top priorities for Smith.
