Angelina Jolie has revealed she encourages her daughters to ‘develop their minds’ as she celebrates ‘strong’ individuals in a new interview with ELLE UK.
The award-winning actress, 44, insisted the world needs more ‘wicked women’, and aims to help her girls Zahara, 14, Shiloh, 13, and Vivienne, 11, become ‘strong-minded’ in a detailed essay for the publication’s September issue.
Screen star Angelina – who also shares Maddox, 17, Pax, 15, and Knox, 11, with estranged husband Brad Pitt – shared her thoughts on women’s most attractive qualities and reflected on working with refugees and survivors of conflict for nearly two decades.
Alongside an effortlessly elegant fashion shoot styled by Elizabeth Stewart, the Maleficent actress expressed her definition of a ‘wicked woman’.
Angelina – who split from her partner Brad, 55, in 2016 after two years of marriage – explained: ‘Looking across the world, we have to ask, Why is so much energy expended to keep women in a secondary position?
‘Looked at in this light, “wicked women” are just women who are tired of injustice and abuse. Women who refuse to follow rules and codes they don’t believe are best for themselves or their families.
‘Women 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. If that is wickedness, then the world needs more wicked women, the mother-of-six added.
The Unbroken actress lifted the lid on her life away from the spotlight as she explained the advice she shares with her daughters on the idea of inner beauty.
She said: ‘I often tell my daughters that the most important thing they can do is to develop their minds. 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.
‘There is nothing more attractive—you might even say enchanting—than a woman with an independent will and her own opinions.’
The TV and film star has been juggling her acting career with her humanitarian duties following her trip to Cambodia for Tomb Raider back in 2000.
Angelina visited the Asian country – where she met and subsequently adopted Maddox with ex-husband Billy Bob Thornton – for a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) field mission.
The filmmaker later travelled to Pakistan, where she donated $1 million (£821,980) in response to an emergency appeal.
Angelina – who co-founded the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative seven years ago – has since taken a hands-on approach in promoting a number of causes, including education, women’s rights and conservation.
Reflecting on her impressive catalogue of work, the Gia star explained: ‘Who we are meant to be in life is something we all have to work out for ourselves.
‘I think we can often go off track 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.
‘I remember when that moment first came for me. I was in my twenties, meeting refugees in Sierra Leone during the closing stages of a brutal civil war.
‘I understood for the first time the level of violence that exists in the world, and the reality of life for the millions of people affected by conflict and displacement. And I discovered [in my international work] my life’s work and purpose.’
The thespian has was made an honorary dame for her services to the UK’s foreign policy in June 2014, and received a prestigious Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award later that year.
Keeping busy with both motherhood and her work in humanities, Angelina is set to play the leading role of Thena in Marvel’s superhero film The Eternals, set for release in November 2020.
The September issue of ELLE UK is on sale from Thursday 8 August 2019.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
