Tina Knowles looks back fondly on daughter Beyoncé’s youth.
“She was very shy, and she got bullied a bit. But the day that she stood up for someone — she didn’t stand up for herself she stood up for them,” Tina, 70, said in a video for Vogue, which she shared on Instagram. “I’m getting emotional talking about it. I was just, I couldn’t have been more proud of her.”
Tina also shared her favorite memory with younger daughter Solange Knowles. According to the mother-of-two, her youngest child had people “her signing a petition in school” while only in fifth grade.
“She’s always been an activist,” Tina gushed.
Along with Beyoncé and Solange, Tina watched Kelly Rowland grow up as well and recalled Rowland developing a fierce loyalty from a young age.
“Kelly was always this kid that just tried to protect everybody,” Tina said. “I have a memory of her with her best friend Barbara and her being a mediator and just being this little peacemaker.”
Captioning the video, Tina referred to Beyoncé, Solange and Kelly, 43, as her “three girls” who “all handled things very differently.” She also offered advice to parents.
“Each child is different! But all so special. I believe kids are born with their personalities,” Tina wrote. “Learn their personalities and respect the individuality. Never compare the negatives, always praise the positive differences and pay attention to the things that you can brag on about them. They love it and it encourages positive behavior.”
Knowles shares Beyoncé, 42, and Solange, 37, with ex-husband Matthew Knowles. Tina and Matthew, 72, were married from 1980 to 2011. While Tina is not Rowland’s biological mother, the Knowles family took her in.
“I’m most proud of the fact that my girls — including Kelly Rowland, who came to live with us when she was like 11, that’s my other baby — are all just wonderful human beings,” Tina said on Today With Hoda & Jenna earlier this month. (Rowland’s mother, Doris Rowland Garrison, died at age 66 in December 2014.)
During the same Today appearance on May 20, Tina gushed over her new role as grandmother.
“It’s the best,” she said. “I mean with grandkids you don’t have the pressure of taking responsibility for how they turn out, so you get to just indulge them and let them have noisy toys that drive their parents [crazy].”
All of her grandchildren are “super creative,” Tina added. Beyoncé shares three kids — Blue Ivy, 12, and twins Rumi and Sir, 6 — with husband Jay-Z. Solange is a mother to Daniel Julez, 19, whom she shares with ex-husband Daniel Smith.
“We’re watching, but they still have a lot of time,” she continued. “They’re all super great artists, visual artists, and very smart so, we don’t know what’s going to happen. Whatever they want to do we just want to support that. I just love them to death.”
