Words of wisdom! Angelina Jolie wants her daughters, Zahara, Shiloh and Vivienne, to remember that what’s on the inside matters most.
“I often tell my daughters that the most important thing they can do is to develop their minds,” the actress, 44, wrote in a Monday, August 5, Elle essay about “wicked women and the men who understand them.” “You can always put on a pretty dress, but it doesn’t matter what you wear on the outside if your mind isn’t strong.”
The Maleficent star added, “There is nothing more attractive — you might even say enchanting — than a woman with an independent will and her own opinions.”
The Oscar winner, who also shares sons Maddox, 15, Pax, 15, and Knox, 11, with her ex-husband Brad Pitt, gushed about her boys as well. “I could not be prouder of my sons for the men they are becoming, the way they respect their sisters and are respected by them,” the Los Angeles native wrote.
Jolie went on to share advice for “wicked women,” defining them as “women who are tired of injustice and abuse [and] women who refuse to follow rules and codes they don’t believe are best for themselves or their families [and] … who won’t give up on their voice and rights, even at the risk of death or imprisonment or rejection by their families and communities.”
She added advice for readers who identify with this, writing, “Who we are meant to be in life is something we all have to work out for ourselves. I think we can often go offtrack as women, because our instinct is to nurture or to adjust ourselves to society’s expectations. It can be hard to take the time to ask ourselves who we truly want to be — not what we think other people will approve of or accept, but who we really are. But when you listen to yourself, you can make the choice to step forward and learn and change.”
