Keke Palmer is bravely sharing her experience as a victim of child-on-child sexual abuse.
In anticipation of her new book, Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative, set to release on Nov. 19, she spoke openly with People magazine about being molested by a peer when she was around 5 years old.
“People don’t really think about child-on-child molestation, but it’s something that exists,” Palmer explained. “I felt weird and violated, but I didn’t really know how to place it. I just knew I had all these weird feelings and thoughts, and I felt a little bit out of control and overwhelmed.”
Palmer, who was drawn to performing from a young age, landed her first small role at 10 in 2004’s Barbershop 2.
However, it took her until two years later to understand the personal impact of her trauma. “I was reading a book about sexual abuse, and it said all these things about anxiety and hyper-sexualization,” she recalled.
“All of this stuff that I attributed to me but really it was because of what I had experienced.”Once she processed the incident, she emphasized, “it wasn’t about blaming that other child. We don’t know sometimes what has happened to us, especially if it doesn’t look the way that the world has told you it looks like.”
Palmer went on to become a child star, landing the lead role in Nickelodeon’s True Jackson VP and starring in various projects, including Scream Queens, 2019’s Hustlers, and 2022’s Nope.
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