Since I never really got into Empire, my love for Taraji P. Henson is mostly because I love HER, her personality, how she comes across in interviews and how she chooses to present herself. I think she seems so cool, funny and pragmatic. The only thing that causes me to side-eye is her closeness with noted nutburger Terrence Howard. But I’m past that. Anyway, Taraji covers the new issue of Redbook, and I love it. She is exactly the kind of celebrity who should be on the cover of Redbook. She’s promoting her new memoir, Around the Way Girl, and now that I know she has a memoir, I want to read it (it comes out next month). Some highlights from Redbook:
How to stay strong: “God didn’t give me anything more than he gave anyone else. We’re all born with a deck of cards and no instructions on how to play them. All God gave us was choice. You can choose to wake up sad or to wake up happy. I chose not to live in fear and to make the best of my life. You can’t put your happiness into anybody’s hands but your own.”
On holding out for the right kind of romantic relationship: “If I was going to get married, it had to be for love, because I wanted [my son] Marcell to see that real kind of love—the kind I yearn for. That old couple crooked and bent over but still holding hands. I know that kind of love exists and I’m not going to stop until I have that.”
On the pitfalls of being overprotective of our children: “These days we’re so busy protecting our kids, when we really should be pulling back the blinds and showing them that we live in a world that’s not always fair and moral. Sometimes we try to protect our children so much that when something doesn’t go right in their lives, they’re unprepared to deal with adversity. I don’t think that does our kids any favors.
On being a single mother and the pressure to do it all: “It depends on what women equate success with. I think we try to do our best. And yes, we can do it all, but it is not easy.
Why she’s not afraid of aging: “I grew up watching women in my family embrace getting older and I think that’s healthy. You ought to see my grandmother: She is 92, looks great, still travels, and dates a younger man. I’m 46 and I’m proud. Men don’t lie about their age, so why should women?”
If I look that good at 46, I won’t lie about my age either! Good God, she looks ten years younger, if not more. It’s easy to embrace ageing when you look amazing. As for Taraji’s conversation about being overprotective of her son, I think she’s making a reference to what went down when she accused the Glendale police of racially targeting her college-aged son, and when the footage came out, she learned that the cop was actually going out of his way to be nice to her son. Meaning, I think her son lied to her. By the way, she did give a great apology to the police for that incident, and I bet she did learn that she was (perhaps) being a little bit overprotective.
Photos courtesy of Yu Tsai/Redbook.
Love the Top Pic, Love Her Kitty Face ( for the Record I have a Cousin with the same exact Hiked up Brows and Kitty Face, which I LOVE, ages well!)
Aw, love her!! She seems like the kind of chick you wanna have a girls’ night out with – like she’d be a ton of fun and have lots of good gossip 🙂
She’s so great! Love her. I am super pumped to see hidden figures
Me too! That movie looks amazing but I just got the book so I have to read that first.
Ever since she made that comment about cutting the line in restaurants, I side eye her a bit. But she does seem like a great woman, and it’s refreshing to see a woman get to superstar status when she’s older than 25.
I also don’t agree with the happiness is a choice narative, or that God gave everyone everything equal. There are actual real obstacles in a lot of people’s lives and overcoming them is often not just a “choice”. I think that narrative is sometimes even dangerous.
Agreeing with you here (again!). I think ultimately – the way you handle things is probably a choice for most people – but I’ve always hated the black and white of that ‘happiness is a choice’. Maybe for one person all it would take is to find a new job and wham – way happier. But for someone else to reach that level of happiness there’s nothing that they can do to change the hand that was dealt.
I think it comes from a place of privilege when it’s discussed. Some people just don’t have the means to change their situation the way that other people do. Some people are just depressed. Some people are living a life in horrible conditions. I don’t expect them to just choose to be happy because it’s just not that simple.
Nice to see her on the cover and I like the picture, except for the tortured photoshopping around her feet and ankles.
It’s easy not lie when you are looking good like her!
I’m a guy and I lie about my age. Of course, I make myself older in preparation for when I actually reach that age. I’ve been doing it for 15 or so years. Sometimes I forget my real age.
Yes I’m neurotic.
She’s absolutely charming!! I liked the way she handled her son’s situation back then, and it does seem like she came out of it having learned something.
I agree with her comment about overprotective parents. I worked in elementary schools and a high school and rational, realistic parents are a rare breed. Yes, I roll my eyes at parents who bring their kids to school every single day ( we live in a very small town, the kids could easily walk, take the bike or a bus). I saw parents who took schools to court because that were unhappy about grades or decisions schools have made.
There is an awful wake-up call in the future for a lot of kids.
“Men don’t lie about their age so why should women?”
Maybe because women age out of Hollywood viability at age 40 while Clint Eastwood is still considered at leading man at age 106?
106, lol
#HIDDENFIGURES ! 😍
I met her in London & she’s so nice! I’d post our selfie – she offered to get out of her car for it! (This doesn’t seem to happen in L.A….) Anyway, nicest celeb by far that I’ve ever met. <3
“You ought to see my grandmother: She is 92, looks great, still travels, and dates a younger man.”
I get what she’s saying and I understand her actual point, but looking at that statement out of context I would think that her grandmother doesn’t have much of a choice as to whether or not to date a younger man. How many 92 year old men are out there to date? This was just simply a weird thought that entered my head when reading this line, not an attempt to mock the real context of what she’s articulating.
wrong they lie about their age all the time. just look at the dating profiles