Charlize Theron recently confirmed her child Jackson identifies as a girl, the child having proclaimed it herself at age three years old.
The actress has told media she has "two daughters," confessing she had initially believed Jackson was "a boy too." But when Jackson pointed out she was "not a boy," the mother of two respected her daughter's choice.
Since then, she has embraced her daughter's decision and started dressing Jackson, now seven years old, in female clothes.
When Theron adopted her elder daughter as a baby, she had initially raised him as a boy. So, when it started being noticed, for a time, rumors began to circulate and questions raised as to why Jackson seemed to be dressed in girl's clothes, and even wore long, braided hair.
Theron shared that she was the same as any parent and desired that her daughters "thrive" and be protected. She, also, went on to say that her children were born as "they are" and that wherever they may "find themselves" as they get older and whoever "they want to be" was not for her to determine.
From that time onward, the South African movie star "celebrated" her child, as part of what she believed was the responsibility of any parent. It is the parent's obligation, according to her, to make sure that anything their child needs that would help in achieving who he or she wanted to become is provided.
She went on to say that, as a mother, she would do whatever she needed to do for her children to "have that right" and have them be "protected" within those rights.
And the Academy Award winner pointed out, Jackson is just as much a girl as her younger sister, 3-year-old August, is.
The 43-year-old actress attributes her attitude about such matters to her mother who raised her to "speak up." Theron related her mother saying that one should be "able to know" that, when the end came, one shall have lived "the truth" one feels "comfortable" being. She added that "nothing negative" could result from doing this, according to her mother.
Theron also talked about her own life as a young girl growing up in Johannesburg, South Africa, where things were rugged and life, tough. She shared that her mother, Gerda, had killed her father in the act of self-preservation and to protect her when he had come home bearing a shotgun.
He had been a violent and abusive man and beat her mother hard often. So on that particular day, he was in a drunken rage and threatened to kill them both. Charlize was only 15 years old, and she witnessed as her mother shot her father.
The act had been treated as a matter of self-defense.
And so Charlize grew up having her mother as her hero and role model. She described her mother as someone who was a "great representation" of what a woman could be. Early in life, she knew that she wanted to be just like her mother, to emulate her strength.
She pointed out that it was not until she was on her own though when she "realized" that respect for women was not true in "every field."
