Jada Pinkett Smith is lending her
voice to a serious and very important cause.
Following a scary family incident in
which her niece was drugged, the 42-year-old actress is speaking out against
date rape and sexual assault against women.
"My niece was given a date rape drug
that weekend," Pinkett Smith told reporters at her Fox TCA Gotham
panel recently. "She's 20 years old—thank God nothing happened because she
was with some responsible guys that took care of her...She was safe because she
was with a group of friends that realized. She said, 'Oh, my god, I can't feel
my...' and she started losing consciousness."
"I had my niece sit down with my
daughter [Willow Smith]
and a couple of her friends and tell her about that experience," Pinkett
Smith went on. "It's one thing to sit with me as her mother. It's like,
'OK, mom, yeah, I get that.' But when you have your 20-year-old cousin that
comes in, and she's like, 'This is what happened,' and it was somebody you
looked up to as well, it's like, 'Oh, man, this is really real.'"
"There is an epidemic going on out
here in regards to the treatment of women," she added. "We have to
figure out how we can empower people in different ways.
"I give her the opportunity to be
empowered by having herself first, because when you allow a person to be an
individual and you allow a person to have power within and have confidence with
who they are, she'll never have to look in the eyes of a man and question
whether it's a yes or a no, she's going to be very clear."
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