Maleficent star Angelina Jolie is just like any mom when it comes to feeling guilty about trying to juggle work and kids. In her latest letter to the parenting newsletter of Time magazine, she has opened up about her decision to become a parent and what she thinks kids need most. The actress, who shared six kids with with ex-husband Brad Pitt, wrote a heartfelt missive to parents saying: “I am thinking of you…How you worry. How you plan. How you smile for them, when inside you feel at times you are breaking.”

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Angelina joined the magazine as contributing editor in 2019, generally writing about the needs of kids throughout the globe, something that has also been a focus in her role as UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Continuing her letter, she writes about her own childhood, saying “I was not a very stable youth. In fact, I never thought I could be anyone’s mom. I remember the decision to become a parent. It wasn’t hard to love. It wasn’t hard to dedicate myself to someone and something greater than my life. What was hard was knowing that from now on I needed to be the one to make sure everything was okay. To manage it and make it work. From food to school to medical. Whatever would come. And to be patient.”

Being the child of Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight, who separated from her mom Marcheline Bertrand when Angelina was two, has always lived her life in the glare of the spotlight. Now, though, as she focuses on what’s best for her children Knox, Vivienne, Pax, Shiloh, Maddox and Zahara, she says she has realized that: “It is a lovely thing to discover that your children don’t want you perfect. They just want you honest. And doing your best. In fact, the more room they have to be great where you are weak, the stronger they may become. They love you. They want to help you. So in the end, it’s the team you build. And in a way, they are raising you up too. You grow together.”