Charlize Theron says she relies on a ‘village of strong Black women’ to help her raise her daughters

Charlize Theron is opening up about the “village” she surrounds herself with in order to raise her children.

The Bombshell actress, who is white and South African, adopted her two daughters — Jackson, 9, and August, 5 — who are both Black. Theron told Essence that she relies on members of the Black community to teach her how to best raise her daughters when her own personal experience is lacking.

“I am so grateful to the incredible village of strong Black women in my life who I can pick up a phone to [call], or come over to my house and they’ll tell me: ‘You need to stop doing this,’ or ‘These baby hairs are breaking off. What are you doing?’” she explained to the outlet. “So they put me in my place, and because of them I feel this great confidence in raising my girls.”

Theron is not the only mom in Hollywood who is seeking guidance on how to respect their child’s racial and cultural identity when it differs from their own. Sex and the City’s Kristen Davis, who is also a mother to two Black children, joined Jada Pinkett Smith on Red Table Talk to discuss how she also seeks support for the things she doesn’t understand about the Black experience.

"You absolutely do not fully understand [white privilege beforehand]. There's no doubt. There's no way you could,” Davis said on the talk show. “Because you can understand that you live in white privilege, and that's a theory, and you can see things. But it's one thing to be watching it happening to other people, and it's another thing when it's your child. And you haven't personally been through it. It's a big issue, and it's something that I think about every day and every night.”