Even small-screen starlets aren’t exempt from bullying. That’s the message actress Keke Palmer plans to take to New York’s Times Square Friday as she leads hundreds of girls and their mothers in kicking off the 3rd Annual Dove Self-Esteem Weekend, a rally to raise awareness about the issues facing young girls today.
“Just as many people that love me, hate me too. I get really mean, mean, mean, mean comments on Twitter and it just comes with the territory,” Palmer told The Huffington Post, adding that, despite her celebrity status and surplus of compliments on her beauty, she often keep her self-esteem in check.
“Even though I’m in the industry and I act and all this stuff, I still suffer from self-esteem issues … from the way that I look or the way that I talk … just nitpicking at myself” she said, adding that she’d like to use events like this one to help her peers “find healthier ways to have a relationship with beauty and not to have so much anxiety about living up to other people’s expectations.”
According to research conducted for Dove’s self-esteem event, a mere 11 percent of girls are comfortable using the word “beautiful” to describe themselves, and more than 60 percent of girls avoid normal daily activities when they feel insecure about their looks.
Palmer’s ongoing struggle against attacks on her self-esteem are familiar to her 900,000-plus Twitter followers. The actress recently took to her social media accounts to set the record straight on how she’d like to be treated. “Being a celebrity does not mean you have clear ground to just disrespect me. Don’t say stupid things just because you THINK you know me, I’m still a STRANGER,” she wrote.
Now, though, she said she’s modifying her approach to Twitter hate.
“In the past I’ve sometimes responded back and more so now I’m trying my best to not ever respond ever again because I feel like those people that do that don’t deserve the attention,” she said. “I feel like you should use social media for good things, for upcoming events and also if there’s something on your heart that you want to get out.”…
Read more: Huffington Post
