Taraji P. Henson is ready to show fans a new side of herself.

ET’s Rachel Smith spoke to the actress at Thursday’s TIME 100 Gala in New York City, and Henson, 53, teased what fans can expect from her forthcoming children’s book, You Can Be a Good Friend (No Matter What!), which is out June 18.

“You always hear that saying, ‘Don’t ever kill the little kid inside of you.’ I’m introducing the world to my little TJ. It’s the little girl that allows me to play still to this day,” Henson told ET. “I have salon that I go in, I have doll heads… That’s where I go when I play.”

“When I grew up, as a kid, we didn’t have much. I remember I would look through the catalogs and circle all the toys and I would say, ‘One day when I’m rich, I’m going to buy these and I’m going to have me a little girl,'” she continued. “I kept that promise to myself.”

Now, Henson said, when “People go, ‘How do you stay so young?'” she answers, “It’s because that little girl inside of me still has a big voice in my life.”

“That’s what the book is about, introducing you to little TJ. Not only that, [but also] teaching children to embrace their differences, embrace others’ differences, and to always see the glass as half full,” she said. “You’re going to be met with opposition in life, how do you deal with it? Are you going to make the best of it or are you going to let that negativity drag you down? Your joy is always a choice. You get to make that choice.”

Thursday was a big night for Henson as she was one of Time‘s honorees. Earlier this month, she was named one of the magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, complete with a tribute from Mary J. Blige.

In her tribute to Henson, Blige praised her courage, writing, “What I love most about her is that she is unapologetically herself. Taraji is a real woman — she doesn’t bite her tongue, and she’s not afraid to stand up for what she believes in.”

Henson told ET that Blige’s words meant “the world” to her, adding, “I feel the same way about her.”

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