Keke Palmer On Natural Hair: Black women have to deal with idea that natural hair isn’t as good as straight hair.

Keke Palmer

Keke Palmer Talks Natural Hair

Keke Palmer is an industry veteran. Beginning her career at nine-years-old, she has done a little bit of everything from acting, singing, and TV hosting. In a recent interview the 23-year-old dishes on why she chooses to be natural, her return to music and childhood struggles with depression and anxiety. Peep the excerpts below.

On wearing no makeup and still feeling empowered: 

I feel like we’re in an era where everything is so perfected because we’re in the big social media time. It’s very new for us still and we’re always posting the most perfect versions of ourselves which is great! But at the same time, I feel like it has become excessive to the point where we are loving fake more than real.

If somebody is being real, it’s like they’re getting bullied because of them being their true selves of course makeup is fun and beautiful but at the end of the day the best thing is always what I look like natural.

Keke Palmer

On natural hair being mainstream: 

Definitely like when it came down to hair, which is I think is something that black women always have to deal with even if they’re not in the industry – the idea that natural hair or braids and all of things aren’t as good as a straight weave or straighter hair. So, I definitely went through a lot of that in the entertainment industry because that’s what they want, they don’t want necessarily want that natural look but I’ve been able to embrace that more as I got older. People are now wearing locks in mainstream, which is so different than before when people would say – that’s not classy and that’s not the look, I’m really happy about that.

On music being the core of her passion and turning her back on it: 

[I] Definitely felt I didn’t understand who I was as an artist and we all go through that process when you’re developing your sound. At 13, I was still discovering what I wanted to talk about and on top of that I grew up in the church singing. I had expectations of what my music career would be like and I was very very disappointed. I realized it wasn’t about people telling me that my music was good or having an album that hits platinum or having a song that was on Billboard, it was about me completing my visions. That’s the confidence builder, holding your vision and going through with it no matter what people say. What really stopped me and broke my heart as a kid was not having people believe in me like I believe in myself but this is my story.

On how her past has made her a stronger person: 

It’s hard to pin point one specific thing. You know, if I look at the totality of my life, I can pin point specific moments where I was like, I jumped over hurdles. I think maybe the main things that I feel like I overcame was my anxiety. I had to realize the people I look up to and admire aren’t that physically different than I am in the sense that, it’s just the way that they think. When I realized, it was a mindset thing, that mental constructs and breaking them down, like building habits and all these things were able to be rearranged and you can rebuild the way that you thought to be… the type of person you want to be and achieve those goals, that’s when my life changed.

On the mind being similar to a computer: 

It’s just playing back to itself what is has already seen and that’s why you have to follow your heart. Your heart may not know how things are going to happen but it feels it and if you follow that, that’s when you’ll end up where you want to be. You’ll be able to really manifest what it is your dreams are.

Keke Palmer

On dealing with depression and anxiety as a child:

Both of them go hand in hand and can trigger one or the other. It happened in spurts and that’s why it was so hard for me to detect as a kid because it was like ‘am I depressed or am I lazy?’ A lot of times it would feel like that especially growing up in poverty. I was feeling down and I wasn’t expressing myself. The real issue was that I was being a people pleaser and not standing up for what I believe.

On who’s her number one inspiration:

My number one inspiration would have to be my mom. Just because she is too legit to quit (dab), like literally I cannot deal with her. Thinking about her growing up in poverty with all of hopes and ideas of what life could be and after experiencing life, she looked to her daughter (me) and helped her find that amazing world. Then it actually comes true. It lets us know that dreams are real. I’m so glad we did it mom! When it comes to someone in the industry I feel like Will Smith and Queen Latifah because they’ve done so many different things.

By: –Candra Mechelle