What We Can Learn From Keke Palmer About Bossing Up

Versatility Is Key

We all like boxes. They're safe, they carry the hundreds of items we order on Amazon each year, and they somehow evoke a sense of comfort. Although boxes are predictable, you have to get out of it to secure the bag, and Keke Palmer is living proof of this fact.

If you want to have something you've never had, you have to find the courage to do something you've never done, and Keke is no stranger to this philosophy. The entertainer said that every chance she gets, she challenges herself because it keeps her on her toes and ready to adapt at all times. Although she got a good deal of backlash from her 2018 collaboration with Lee Daniels where she played a lesbian street hustler, Keke told Pride Source that she took the role because it challenged her:

"I started developing this project right after ‘True Jackson,’ like a year after kind of doing the same thing. I think TV naturally can be a little bit repetitive, and when you're doing a children's network, it can really only go so far (with) subjects and content matter and what you can talk about. So, for me, I was really just looking for something that would allow me a challenge as an actor."

Find Power In Your Pain

A true boss doesn't just secure a check, they use that check to help those who haven't. Along with acting, singing, and dancing, Keke has also used her platform for philanthropy. Her partnerships with The Boys and Girls Club, World Young Women's Christian Association, and Saving Our Daughters have brought to light a number of issues facing young people today and she's even used social media to get real about her own trauma.

In 2016, she revealed that she was molested by a family member and earlier this year, Keke took to Twitter to voice her opinion about restrictive women's rights, revealing that she also had an abortion earlier in her life and encouraged women to keep fighting. The actress proves that sometimes your pain can be powerful in the healing of others, use it wisely.

Don't Take "No" For An Answer

In 2014, Keke Palmer partnered with Kenya Barris and BET to become the youngest talk show host in the history of television when she debuted her show, Just Keke. Although the show was greenlit for nationwide syndication in 2015, the show stopped airing after 20 episodes, and seemingly putting Keke's dreams of being a host on hold.

But when God closes one door, a window opens. If Keke had stopped pursuing her dreams because one network said "no," we would never get the yasss-worthy content we will now see her serving up every day on the Strahan and Sara (and Keke) Show.

Bossing up isn't really about a check, it's about your mindset. Secure the bag sis, but you're the bag. Secure you, first.