Keke Palmer is easily one of our favorite tell-it-like-it-is celebrities. From her up close and personal revelation of her battle with adult acne to doing it for the culture at the MET Gala to admitting she's "sorry to this man," Keke is known to give it to you straight, no chaser. And it's that commitment to being unapologetic in telling her truth that draws others to her like the light that she is.
But just because Keke has gotten to a place where she is celebratory of her truths (the good and the bad), doesn't mean the booked and busy hustler didn't at one time struggle. By the age of 15, Keke had experienced runaway success after her breakthrough role in the film Akeelah and the Bee, subsequent film and television roles, and a debut album, So Uncool.
And by 2008, Keke was one of the highest paid child stars on TV, earning a cool $20,000 per episode of her hit Nickelodeon show, True Jackson, VP. However, her accomplishments didn't stop her from experiencing trauma, in fact, it exacerbated it. In a conversation with Chromebook for their The Adulthood series, theVirgo Tendencies songstress revealed:
"When I was about 17, things started to get really, really crazy success-wise and it really just switched the dynamics of my family. They didn't really understand the trauma I was going through when it came to being famous. I was thinking about getting emancipated. And I had a conversation with my attorney and he said, 'You know, you don't have to do this. Many people have experienced what you're going through. You just have to set boundaries.'"
Boundaries became a game-changer for the young star who seemed to learn early on what it takes many of us years to understand. Setting boundaries is an act of self-love that serves as a reminder to yourself and those around you that your wants and needs also matter. A lack of boundaries was costing the actress her peace of mind.
"Boundaries are the stepping stone of self-respect and thus teaching other people how to respect and love us. When we don't know our own boundaries, it kind of becomes difficult to blame other people for what they may say or do. When I was a kid, girl, I would just stop talking to people forever. A lot of those people didn't even know what they did. I was actually cutting off a lot of good people do love me and would want to know how to best be there for me."
The 28-year-old also credited self-care practices as a cornerstone to allowing her to arrive in spaces as her best self and being more in tune with who she is on her best day instead of her worst. Through mindfulness, meditation, and stillness, negative self-talk is just one of the things her self-care game has helped her overcome.
"I can say from my experience as a Black American woman, there's a lot of stuff that you have to choose to block out. And that's not you being passive, that's you paying attention to the goal. It's important to add practices in your life to help refuel you. Mindfulness, meditation -- it allows the space for you to be objective to your own thoughts..."
"When I'm active in my practices, I'm able to catch myself much more quickly when I start to do bad self-talk. And when we're sometimes dealing with so many things in the world, we don't even realize all we need is a bit of stillness to help balance us back out."
Watch Keke Palmer talk about boundaries and the importance of self-care below:
Featured image by Taylor Hill/WireImage