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Entertainment July 13, 2017
She's not your typical singer/actress.
Photo via Instagram / @kekeYou may recognize Keke Palmer from the numerous movies she’s starred in, like the 2006 hit “Akeelah and the Bee.” Or maybe you found out about her from her lead role as Zayday Williams on the TV show “Scream Queens.”
Her talent doesn’t stop there. Keke Palmer is also a singer, songwriter and TV personality.
However, our favorite part about Keke Palmer doesn’t come from her performing background. We love the fact that she is a positive role model to women and especially to young girls.
So to celebrate this Woman That Does, ENTITY compiled a list of the five reasons Keke Palmer is one seriously empowered woman.
Before giving self-love advice to other women, Keke Palmer starts with herself.
The popular actress shocked fans in May when she chopped off her iconic locks in favor of a new look. And Keke wasn’t holding anything back because she went completely bald. After achieving her shiny new ‘do, she opted to dye her head pink, but she quickly switched it up again and settled with purple.
“I cut my hair for a couple of reasons. The first being, I wanted to start over,” Keke told Refinery 29. “My texture has changed quite a bit over the years from all the things I’ve done to it. I really want to be able to let my hair rest and become its own thing. I also really wanted to be bald!”
But hair care wasn’t her only inspiration. “For me, style is all about self-expression. I’m in a place in my life where I realized I don’t have anything stopping me from expressing myself in any facet, and that makes me happy,” she added.”
And the great thing is that this isn’t the first time Keke stood up for what makes her happy. For example, she also pushes this message in her 2015 song “I Don’t Belong to You.”
She reinforced her song’s message in an interview with Necole Bitchie.”I don’t belong to anyone else but myself,” she said. “I have to make my own decisions. Happiness is defined by me.”
Keke Palmer often takes the role of motivational speaker for the “Boys and Girls Club of America” charity, “Cool to be Smart.” The program focuses on emphasizing the importance of learning.
“Giving back, doing motivational speeches and stuff like that, that’s always made me feel good,” she’s told her fans. “If you repeatedly go out there, and you are the change that you want to see, then that’s what you are.”
But her work with young people doesn’t end with learning in schools. She also focuses on the mission to end bullying. Keke Palmer works with the campaign “Saving Our Daughters” to help increase the self-esteem of young women.
Her bio on the “Saving Our Daughters” website details her experience with the organization:
“Saving Our Daughters is a charity that I have been working with for a very long time – since I was 12. Over the years, we have attacked issues such as bullying and self-esteem. The theme of Cinderella is “to believe the impossible”: this is the message that I hope to get across during our time together.”
In 2014, Keke Palmer was the first woman to play Cinderella on Broadway, and the “Saving Our Cinderellas” program within the campaign was inspired by her role. This program focuses on young girls who are struggling with bullying because of their skin color.
“When I was, like, 5 years old, I used to pray to have light skin because I would always hear how pretty that little light skin girl was,” Palmer said at the 2013 Hollywood Confidential Panel in Los Angeles. “Or I would hear I was pretty to be dark skin. It wasn’t until I was 13 that I really learned to appreciate my skin color and know that I was beautiful.”
In addition to fighting for learning and against bullying, Keke Palmer tackles the difficult topic of mental health. Her stance is that we need to stop making it so difficult to talk about.
In a March interview with Broadly, she opened up about her struggles with life in Hollywood over the past five years. “These last years, being 18 to 23, have been so overwhelming,” she said. “I was an adult and exposed to Hollywood as it really was, and it was a lot to take in and shocking. It was just too much for me. I find peace and solace in yoga, meditation, prayer, and also talking to a therapist.”
She went on to describe how seeking help for mental health is a stigmatized thing in society. She also noted that the rest of the country could benefit from the open-minded attitude California and New York have adopted.
“These are things that never really seem normal in our society, which is why everyone feels so weird talking about them. But the reality is that I’m a human being. It’s not an easy gig,” she added.
Add author to her list of accomplishments. Keke Palmer released her book titled, “I Don’t Belong to You: Quiet the Noise and Find Your Voice,” on the last day of January 2017.
Her book not only combines humor and inspiration to give women a guide to confidence and freedom, it also provides Keke Palmer with a platform to talk about her lifelong struggle with anxiety and depression. She gets personal about what Hollywood life is like when you enter the industry at age nine.
One reviewer on Goodreads provided their opinion of the book:
“First opening to read this book, I thought I knew all that was Keke Palmer. Boy was I wrong. I learned about her and how she overcame every struggle she faced in her life. From having depression, dealing with sexuality and feeling as if she has to keep to one label. In this book, you learn about self growth, spirituality, how to deal with your own sexuality and much more.”
Keep rockin’ Keke because we love what you’re doing to make a difference in the community!
