Tina Knowles Shares Beyoncé’s Childhood Struggles

Beyoncé may run the world now, but Tina Knowles has revealed that her daughter experienced her fair share of bullies back when the superstar was young. In a video interview with Vogue posted Sunday (May 26), the businesswoman opened up about raising her daughters to embrace their individuality — no matter who tried to break their souls. “Beyoncé, she was very shy,” she shared. “She got bullied a bit.”

“The day that she stood up for someone … she didn’t stand up for herself, she stood up for them,” Knowles added. “I’m getting emotional talking about it. I couldn’t have been more proud of her.”

She went on to share that her youngest daughter, Grammy-winning musician Solange, has “always been an activist” and often went around asking people to sign petitions. As for Bey’s best friend and former Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland, Knowles remembers the Mea Culpa star as being a “little peacemaker” when she was young.

“Kelly was always this kid that tried to protect everybody,” she continued.

Sharing the clip on her personal account, Knowles wrote,

“Each child is different!”

“But all so special,” she added. “I believe kids are born with their personalities. My three girls All handled things very differently. Learn their personalities and respect the individuality.”

Bey is now a mom herself, with Ms. Tina taking on the role of grandmother to 12-year-old Blue Ivy and 6-year-old twins Rumi and Sir, whom the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer shares with Jay-Z. That means the vocalist is imparting onto her own children the same lessons she previously learned from Knowles, including the importance of blocking out the haters and focusing on one’s craft.

For instance, Knowles recently revealed that Bey had some wise words for Blue after her dancing at the Renaissance Tour received negative comments. “It was a great life lesson because her mom basically said, ‘Listen, if you let this get you down, then they won,” she recalled.

“So you should go and work harder. And, you know, just work harder and get your skills together and go out there and blast it.’”

Watch the clip below.