The daughter of a single mother, actress Nia Long says she felt forced to become an adult at a young age. "I had to protect my mom," she says on "Oprah's Lifeclass."
Like Nia, an 18-year-old audience member named Zoey is the daughter of a single mother. Since she was a child, she has taken a parental role to her younger sisters. "When I look at you, I look at exactly who I was as a little girl," Nia tells Zoey.
"And I want to tell you something," Nia says, becoming emotional. "Allow yourself to be a girl. To be a child. You don't have to carry all of that with you. You're still a baby."
"Try to find some way to start fresh and let all of that go, and own your own life and forgive your mom," she advises. "Because me and my mom, I love her to death and there's still moments where these things come up."
Kym Whitley, who also participates in the "Lifeclass" discussion, appeared on HuffPost Live on Friday along with OWN Executive Producer Dana Brooks to talk more about challenges facing single moms. Watch the full conversation in the video below.
Part 2 of Oprah's no-holds-barred discussion with an audience filled with single mothers continues on "Oprah's Lifeclass" Friday at 9 p.m. ET on OWN.
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