Jaden Reveals Why He Will No Longer Go By “Jaden Smith”

Jaden Smith has long marched to the beat of his own drum. Whether it’s by way of music, movies, or his celebrated style.

Still, as the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, he’s always been tied to his lineage.

In recent times, he’s ditched the surname and has gone solely by Jaden.

Now, in a new interview with Zane Lowe, he unpacks why.

Full story below…

Speaking on Apple’s Beats 1 radio, Jaden explained:

“I realized that Willow changed her name to Willow at some point in time. And that she was no longer Willow Smith. Yeah, it took me a while. It took me a while. Because if you look Willow Smith up, it’ll still come up. But then it took me a while to see that it was just Willow. And I was like, ‘Yo. That’s so strong, Willow.’

You feel like you don’t have to say your last name. You’re just Willow. I create different characters for myself and that’s also one of the reasons I love Bowie so much, but I create different characters for myself and it’s like, Jaden, that’s music and Jaden Smith, that’s paperwork, that’s acting in movies. I wanted to just make that little distinction there, just a little bit, so that I could just … different things are happening.”