Tina Knowles on Blue Ivy’s Growing Confidence & Letting Rumi Loose Onstage! (Exclusive)

Tina Knowles chatted with “Extra’s” Mona Kosar Abdi about her memoir “Matriarch” at “An Evening with Tina Knowles, Family and Friends,” an in-conversation event with Gayle King at Brooklyn Paramount.

Talking about being in the spotlight with her book, she shared, "It's very different because I'm usually backstage, but it's been fun, it's been great. I've met such interesting people and I'm just so happy and thrilled that people love the book and that it's inspired them to go… discover their own journey and their stories of their families.”

Before the book came out, she said, "I sent each person's parts,” just so no family members would be unpleasantly surprised by anything. “I got the okay for it. I wouldn't dare just write it and put things out because, you know, some of the things I just wanted to know how they felt about it, and all of them were in agreement… That was a surprise, and it was so appreciated because I felt like it was my story and my story to tell.”

Mona brought up a moment from the book in which Tina wrote about the experience of being dismissed when she was presenting her designs and being overlooked. Beyoncé and Kelly stood up for her, and Tina said, “I watch interviews all the time on Instagram and it’s old interviews and they are speaking up for me, and I never even thought about it before.”

She continued, “Now, I'm seeing them and Kelly is always like, ‘And our talented stylist...’ and Beyoncé is saying, ‘Yeah, my mom does the clothes and… she's so talented.’ And that means the world to me because they could have been, especially when they got to the point where the label wanted them to have high-end designers, and they were still like, ‘No, we still want you to style us.’ They stuck by me and they were so loyal and I get choked up seeing it because it's really beautiful.”

Knowles explained, “I just tapped into knowing that even though maybe the label or high-end fashion brands were hating a little bit, I would see my things copied on their runway. And I had good sense enough to know that a lot of that was just them wanting to dismiss me but then they would go and I would inspire them to do things and take risks. So, I knew in my heart that it was okay and what I was doing was good because the fans were the important people to me, not the designers or those other people. I just kept that in mind. But it was hard sometimes. I would cry sometimes. They would say some crazy stuff, but yeah, I stuck it out.”

Speaking of her family’s longevity on the scene, she said, “It's very authentic. Everything you see is not filtered or man-made. It's actually a love of music, a love of creativity, a love of fashion. Just passion about what we do. And I think you got to have the passion. You have to have the patience and it'll come. I believe that it'll come.”

Tina is seeing her grandchildren become a part of the family’s legacy, including Blue Ivy, who is taking center stage on Bey’s Cowboy Carter tour.

“Well, it's the best, because at the end of the day, the most important bonus of that is I just see the confidence just growing every day,” she said. “Blue is tall, she's like 5'9”, and she's 13 years old… and I would always say, ‘Stand tall because your grandma always wanted to be tall.’ And she would still kind of slump a little bit, and now we got the model pose and she is strutting and she is confident and that's the most important thing to me.”

She is so proud of her granddaughter, but Tina revealed, “My wish for her is that I wish that she would do something else. I hope that she doesn't go into entertainment,” adding, “I think it's a huge sacrifice. It's a huge sacrifice on your life. But if she chooses to do it, I'm going be right up front screaming and cheering. But hopefully she'll choose something else, but what I do know? And that's why her mom let her do it, is because she got her confidence there. And it's beautiful to see."

Tina added of Blue's 7-year-old sister Rumi, "And little Rumi also, she told us every night during Renaissance, ‘I'm ready. I'm ready to go out there,’ and we were like, ‘Okay, next time.’ And this time, her mom let her go and it's wonderful to see her out there.”

She insisted, “They need to let her let loose ’cause she is back there doing choreography and twirling and doing all pliés and everything else. And I'm like, ‘Let her loose one night!’”