Plus, why she actually sympathizes with a certain reality TV family.
The multi-talented Keke Palmer has never been one to bite her tongue, especially when it comes to speaking her truth.
The 23-year-old beauty recently sat down with Yahoo Beauty to talk about her evolution within an industry that continues to praise inauthentic beauty standards. Specifically, she called out the scope placed on celebrities like the Kardashians, who are lauded for being what many consider to be the perfect archetype of a woman.
“In the sense of the Kardashians, it’s like I’m going to show you so much perfect and be everything a woman should be or everything a man would like or love,” she said. “And I’m going to be exactly that so you can’t bully me anymore,” speaking in reference to the scrutiny Kylie Jenner faced as a pre-teen in the spotlight.
“You’ve had a young girl people have seen on television since she was a kid and they literally told her she was so ugly. She went and did apparently everything the world deems as beautiful. The even crazier part is that everybody loves her for it.”
Keke says that she herself has faced such pressures, but always makes sure she remembers that staying true to herself is key to her sanity and longevity in such a crazy industry. She says she felt the most pressure and kickback when she decided to ditch what had become her signature long strands for a buzz cut.
@keke/Instagram
The actress recently accentuated her big chop by taking it from brown to purple.
“For years, I was getting pigeonholed into this specific look, this ‘Keke Palmer‘ look. This Black girl with this type of hair look,” said Keke. “But when it gets to the point when you feel like you can’t be you without hair on the top of your head that’s not yours, that’s oppression.”
We’ve since seen Keke rock everything from short blonde pixies to braided mohawks. The key, in Keke’s opinion, is to remember that hair is simply hair, and it’s versatile.
“I can still put a wig on, still rock a weave, but at the end of the day still know that this is my hair. It’s curly, it’s kinky, it’s thick, it’s thin sometimes, and I love that.” We couldn’t agree more!
Read Keke’s full interview on Yahoo Beauty, and be sure to check out her new web series, “That’s The Gag,” on YouTube.
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[BLANK_AUDIO] Why did you feel it was important to write a book now? I Don't Belong To You. It's a very powerful title. So tell me a little bit, why you felt- Because I think this is when we really have to start, I mean, at this age, I don't know when we are gonna be able to take ownerships of ourselves. I found that I was able to achieve so much more in my life as I started Started to gain more confidence and learned how to yield more confidence in myself by hearing about how I feel, try to [UNKNOWN] essentially, giving myself a moment of silence and learning different practices that allow my mind to be clear enough to where my creativity can flow through. And so I wanted to write it because look, I'm 23. I've been Exposed to so many things that unfortunately not a lot of people my age have been exposed to because of money and things like that. And so I felt like it would be a disservice to not only them but to myself to not give that away. It wasn't given to me to just hold inside. I know when I read the book because I mentioned off camera that I had a preview copy if you will. That I thought it really shocking. You've had so much success from such a young age that you struggle from self-esteem issues. Definitely. So how did you exactly tap into that and say, you know what, this is who I am, and I'm owning it? Because you're definitely owning it. My gosh, thank you. Well, I started Much real if my self esteem issues came from the industry meaning the industry started to pigeonhole me and in turn me trying to maneuver myself to let them pigeonhole me is one thing not as multitask as I actually am that in turn what's made me have low self esteem because I was not putting myself first and so what happened was I spent a lot of time in and out of depression and my anxiety and understanding that Culturally that is something that, my family has dealt with for years. And coming to understand all these things, I started to peel back the layers, and I pretty much just started to simplify what the problem was, which is that yo, I gotta be Kinder to me. Yes. I've got to take time for me. I have to input practices in my life that allow me to feel good about me. What i'm eating, what i'm ingesting, the knowledge, the things i'm reading People you're around. The people i'm around. All those things we just. It's like when you were a kid, your mom is like "yo, we got to church.' your dad is like, ' let's go to church.' Like, 'why we got to go to Church. I realize that's why. Church, let's take away the whole religion part of it that gives people the heebie-jeebies. And let's just say church is just meant to be a place where people that are like-minded can go together and talk and uplift one another. [BLANK_AUDIO]
