TV Host and singer Keke Palmer graced the pages of InStyle Magazine April issue. Styled by Mindy Le Brock. Palmer eposts her cover for the spread on a recent Instagram post exclaiming, “Truly, this was the funnest shoot I’ve ever had!!” The true gem is a young photographer named Quil Lemons, who is responsible for creating these breathtaking images.
She thanked editorial photographer, Quil Lemons, who she worked with on the spread. She recalled a few words he gave to her during the 12 hour day of shooting, “Baby YOU KEKE PALMER, we going full editorial PERIOD.” That brief conversation created a full spread of stunning photos of Keke Palmer serving Black girl realness.
“I can not tell you, how amazing this shoot was for me. I owe it all to @quillemons, he is so special in my heart!!!! I got to the shoot at 8 am and didn’t leave till 9 pm and we were only supposed to do a few looks chile. He said ‘baby you Keke Palmer, we going full editorial period.’”
Then the star also stated that she sent a direct message to InStyle Magazine editor-in-chief, Laura Brown:
“And to think, this all happened because I dm’d you @laurabrown99!! Thank you, for giving Quil and I the space to be creative. Truly, this was the funniest shoot I’ve ever had!”
In the cover story, the ‘Barbershop 2: Back in Business’ star stated that she was “misunderstood” even though she started her career as a child star. She said:
“At a young age, as a child entertainer world, your emotions are always the last thing that people care about. I think you get really quickly into being a people-pleaser and trying to be everything that everybody wants you to be. And so I think in a lot of that, you end up being misunderstood.”
- On embracing her authentic self without outside validation: “I got tired of trying to be who everybody wanted me to be. There’s always going to be something that people hate me for, whether it’s wanting me to not be Black, or a woman, or tall, or short, or skinny, or thick. Other people might love me for it, but I don’t want to constantly change who I am for outside validation. That just sounds like hell.” “I’d rather be loved or hated for being myself than for being somebody I’m not. If people don’t like that I tell it like it is, then they should at least be able to respect me for being real.”
- On navigating a love-hate relationship with makeup since her early teens: “I was constantly hiding myself and felt shame about having acne,” she remembers. “Wearing makeup became a chore because I always had to be ‘on’ wherever I went in case a fan asked me to take a picture; I didn’t have the proper boundaries to say no. So instead of getting to the bottom of my acne and trying to understand it, I was covering it up, trying to be perfect. But you’re never going to get to the nitty-gritty of something when you do a lot of covering up.”
- On going public with her PCOS diagnosis to help others: “I feel most beautiful when I’m being kind and of service to others,” she says. “As females, we need to advocate for ourselves, because everything [in society] is kind of a rule-of-thumb by males. But it shouldn’t be weird for us to talk about our health issues or demand what we need when we go to the doctor. We make it weird, but it’s not really weird—and the more that we talk about it, the less of an issue it will become.”
- On her full-circle career moment coming back to the place where it all began: “I started with Disney when I was 10 years old, and I’ve worked my way up,” she says. “I’m ready to usher in a new generation of creative talent coming up behind me, especially from lower-income communities. I don’t run from my past, and I’m not ashamed that I came from poverty. I want other people to know they’re beautiful not in spite of, but because of, where they come from. It’s not about changing who you are to step through the doors; it’s about being who you are when you get there.”
- On keeping it real on social media, but maintaining her privacy: “All an entertainer really wants is to cater to their audience, but you subject yourself to so much craziness when you solely engage on social media,” she says. “A lot of people want to get in your force field, and you have to find ways to maintain privacy. I know young girls are looking at my page, and I keep it real with them—but that doesn’t mean I’m going to overexpose my personal life. And when I’m talking personal, it’s like, who you slept with last night. You ain’t got to share that! My love life is a very big line that I won’t cross.”
