‘Everybody Is Not Beyoncé, and That’s OK’: Keke Palmer Discusses How Child Stardom Took an Emotional Toll on Her

When watching celebrities’ lifestyles from a third-person point of view it’s easy to assume that their lives are absolutely perfect and stress-free. No matter how many of them say they deal with the same problems an average person deals with, people somehow still hold celebrities to a high standard and judge them by the smallest things. And according to actress Keke Palmer, it gets no easier for a child star.

Palmer appeared as a guest on the “Ladies First With Laura Brown” April 6 podcast to talk about how stardom can take an emotional toll on a child. “At a young age, as a child [in the] entertainer world, your emotions are always the last thing that people care about.” She continued to say that the spotlight somewhat pushes the child into “trying to be everything that everybody wants you to be,” which causes them to “end up being misunderstood.”

Keke Palmer. Photo: @kekepalmer/Instagram

The “Akeelah and the Bee” star revealed that she still struggles with being a people-pleaser even as an adult, which is why she likes her alone time. “Sometimes it’s much easier because I don’t have to please anybody but myself,” she said. “I find so much ease with being alone because I actually like me.”

The 27-year-old went on to talk about how she manifested the fearless confidence she has today. She talked about hiding her skin behind makeup due to her struggles with acne, but now she embraces her natural look.

She said, “When I was at the ages of like 13, 14, 15, it was like, you could never see me without makeup. I was not playing around. But as I got older, I think I really just kind of got tired. It was tiring to me to keep on hiding my skin and to keep on doing that whole thing.” She continued, “I had to really come to that understanding that success is what you make it and what you design it to be. Everybody is not Beyoncé, and that’s alright. That doesn’t mean that you’re not amazing because if you’re not Beyoncé, maybe you are Norah Jones.”

Last December, the singer revealed that she suffers from polycystic ovary syndrome, which not only causes irregular periods and infertility but is also the cause of her acne. She ended her lengthy caption about the disorder with a message of encouragement for her fans. She said, “I’m not afraid to show myself to the world, and you shouldn’t be either ❤️.”

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