Keke Palmer Says Her Younger Self “Deserved to Be Angry” After Growing Up as a Child Star

Keke Palmer Says Her Younger Self “Deserved to Be Angry” After Growing Up as a Child Star

In a new interview tied to her upcoming film Good Fortune, Keke Palmer opened up about the emotional suppression she experienced as a child star, and how she now wishes she could tell her younger self. She tells People:

“I think that my younger self needed to hear that it’s really okay to be angry, and it’s really okay to be sad.”

Reflecting on her youth, Palmer said she often held back her own feelings, trying “to make it easier for everybody,” rather than letting her more difficult emotions show.

But with time, she’s arrived at a gentler truth. “You deserve to be angry sometimes. You deserve to be sad. Those are real emotions.”

Palmer’s acting journey began at age 10, when she landed a role in Barbershop 2. Her breakout came with Akeelah and the Bee in 2006, and she later starred on Nickelodeon’s True Jackson, VP.

Over time, as she became a financial support for her family, she adopted that responsibility as a kind of protection. “I wore it like armor,” Palmer said.

Now approaching 32, Palmer is learning to give herself permission to feel — and to heal.