In its 17 years on newsstands, Nylon Magazine has never featured a solo dude on its cover. Obviously, if anyone were to break that mold, it'd be Jaden Smith, who was just revealed as the cover star of Nylon's August issue.

Jaden covers the magazine's annual Denim Issue in a Gucci jean jacket and lace turtleneck from Isabel Marant. While Jaden doesn't wear any skirts in his spread, he discusses what he hopes to inspire by wearing them IRL. He says:

You just have to believe in yourself, you know. The world is going to keep bashing me for whatever I do, and I'm going to keep not caring. I’m going to keep doing the same things — I'm going to keep doing more things. I'm going to take most of the blows for my fellow MSFTS. So, you know, in five years when a kid goes to school wearing a skirt, he won't get beat up and kids won't get mad at him. It just doesn't matter. I'm taking the brunt of it so that later on, my kids and the next generations of kids will all think that certain things are normal that weren't expected before my time.

Jaden has been long committed to erasing gender norms, from attending prom in a dress to starring in Louis Vuitton's womenswear campaign. He, along with others like Young Thug — who stars in Calvin Klein's new campaign and declared he feels like "there's no such thing as gender" — are publicly encouraging people to dress how they want and that is so, so exciting and necessary.

You can read the rest of his interview on Nylon.