Talia Jackson is a woman worth getting to know. The “Family Reunion,” star is someone who made a huge splash from the moment she appeared on the hit Netflix series, and she has not looked back since. She’s got things going on in her life that are beyond exciting, and she’s made it a habit to focus on the good in her life. She plays the role of Jade, and she plays it to perfection. Her fan base has grown exponentially since her first appearance on the show, and her fans want to know more about her.
1. She had Some Unpleasant Experiences in Her Role
She was only a teenager when she was first cast in the show as the daughter in the family. She was so excited about it, but she was horrified when she realized that the people who were watching the show thought she was white. They were confused why the show would cast a white girl as the daughter of a black family, and they crushed her online. They did not realize she was wearing a wig, hiding her signature curls, and doing what she was cast to do. It was difficult.
2. She Felt She Had to Prove Herself
When she began to see that the world thought she was white, she felt the overwhelming need to make sure the world knew she was biracial. Her mother in the show, Tia Mowry, is also playing a biracial woman, and Jackson was confused by the reaction from fans. She was overwhelmingly inclined to make sure the world knew she was mixed.
3. She Thought the Show Would Get Canceled
Because her skin is so light, she was fearful that the fans would dislike the show, not watch, the ratings would drop, and she’d be the reason Netflix canceled the show. She was horrified by all of it, and she felt as if this massive burden had been handed right to her for her to live with. It was a difficult time for her, and she didn’t get to enjoy her new role the way in which she should have.
4. Her Mom Has Her Back
When she cried the day the show was released, deleted Instagram, and felt as if her world were ending, her real mom reached out to her television mom. It’s not a secret that Tia Mowry went through some stuff growing up as a child actor who is also mixed. Her mom asked her television mom to reach out to her and make sure she could be there for her to help her get through these rough days – and she did.
5. She Lives with Depression and Anxiety
While the show and the backlash from her fans was difficult for her and triggered anxiety in her, she was already living with it. At the tender age of 13, she was diagnosed with both anxiety and depression, and it was difficult. That’s such a difficult time for a young woman regardless, but to also have that diagnosis on your shoulders is so much.
6. She’s Also Dealing with Other Issues
In addition to her anxiety and her depression, she also struggles with both ADHD and OCD. It’s not uncommon for people who have anxiety to have both, and she lives with it each day. As someone who is very familiar with OCD, it can be difficult to deal with, it can exacerbate your anxiety, and it takes a great deal of practice to learn to recognize triggers…and I’m an adult dealing with it rather than a young woman who was only 13 when diagnosed.
7. She Struggled in School
Anxiety is overwhelming. Being a child with anxiety makes it even more overwhelming. However, she didn’t handle it well when she was younger. She was a student who would be so overwhelmed she’d struggle to focus, to read, to function; her mother took her out of many schools, tried everything, and worked very hard to find a place where her little girl felt comfortable.
8. She’s Focused on Thriving
For many years of her life, she’s been so focused on surviving that she’s not focused at all on thriving. When you have depression and anxiety in addition to so many other health issues, your mental strength is regularly depleted. She focused on surviving, and she had to learn to focus on thriving. It has not been a walk in the park for Jackson, but each day is better than the day before.
9. She’s Learned to Enjoy Herself
While we readily admit we don’t know anything about living with depression, we can imagine that being sad and depressed and down, feeling suicidal, and not good enough and so many other horrible feelings about yourself is hard. When you feel that way, we imagine it’s so easy to feel that there is something wrong with you, and that you are the problem, and that you are not good enough. Talia Jackson may have felt those things – we don’t know, and we cannot speak for her – but she’s been learning to enjoy her own company. If we had to guess, that is something very difficult to do when your own mind regularly tricks you into such dark, sad feelings. She’s overcoming. She’s learning. She’s learning spirituality. She’s learning to be with herself, to appreciate her own company, and to see herself from a different light.
10. She is Strong
We don’t need to know her personally to know she’s strong. All we need to know is that she was a little girl who dealt with things so much bigger than any child should ever have to deal with, and she pulled herself out of some very dark places. She’s learned to focus on thriving rather than surviving. She’s learned to like herself, and she’s working on taking nothing personally. She’s growing, she’s thriving, and she’s a survivor.
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