Angelina Jolie on How Her Six 'Very Individual' Kids Are Growing Up: 'They're Pretty Great People'

Angelina Jolie is witnessing her kids becoming their best selves.

In this week's PEOPLE — the 2021 Kindness Issue — the Eternals actress opens up about watching her children grow up and inspire each other. The Oscar winner is mom to six children: Maddox, 20, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 15, and 13-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox.

"They're pretty great people," Jolie, 46, tells PEOPLE "and because there's so many of them, I think they've had a very significant effect on each other. It's not like I'm the head of anything. I'm very honest with my kids. And I'm very human with my kids."

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The mom explains she is "curious about all the different aspects of who they are" when raising them, and her priority is to "be there to support and develop all the different aspects of who they are."

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"I have six very individual human beings in my home. I am so excited about all the different stages and feelings and curiosities that they go through. Why wouldn't you be?" Jolie tells PEOPLE. "We're supposed to help them figure out who they are. And you can't figure out who they are if you don't enthusiastically develop with them."

A longtime advocate for refugees through her work with the U.N., Jolie admits to being "tough" on herself when it comes to being a parent, however.

"I'm not a perfect parent by any means," she says, adding, "Every day I feel like I'm more aware of everything I don't do right. And I'm pretty tough on myself, because I feel often, 'Am I doing the right thing? Did I says the right thing?' "

Jolie adds, "My children have done many, many loving things. My children's kindness has been very healing to me."

For more on Angelina Jolie, pick up the new Kindness Issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.