Keke Palmer doesn’t want other people to compare their bodies to hers — and she broke down why.
“It is my job. Let’s not get crazy — I don’t want people thinking that I am setting unrealistic standards. I can afford a trainer, meal prep and a lot of things,” the actress, 29, explained on the Tuesday, August 1, episode of her “Baby, This is Keke Palmer” podcast. “It is expensive but I am investing in my career because it is my career to look good. Not even is it my career to look good, it is my career choice to have the kind of career that I want to have.”
Palmer reiterated that it was her “personal choice” to invest in her wellness journey.
“I never want to put it on anybody,” she shared. “I always want to make it clear that when I am talking about fitness, health and wellness is that, ‘Your journey is your journey. You figure it out the way you can.’ And when you look at these celebrities and people in the industry, know that it is their job.”
Earlier in the episode, Palmer said her view of her body changed since welcoming her son, adding, “It’s interesting — after the baby — to see all the extra stuff I have to work with and how much my fear of having extra weight actually became a strength as it pertained to weight training and working out.”
Keke Palmer. JUSTIN LANE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Palmer became a mother when she welcomed son Leodis with Darius Jackson in February. The Nope actress discussed how her outlook has changed since her baby boy’s arrival.
“After having my baby, I’ve just gotten so much more powerful. I’m just so strengthened in a crazy way. Strutting my stuff, enjoying,” she said in an interview with The Cut last month, which was published shortly after Jackson, 29, mom-shamed Palmer for an outfit she wore at an Usher concert. “I’ll be honest, I think before I even had the baby, I was really actually quite self-conscious.”
Palmer went on to share how she was always “trying to be on point” with her physical appearance before motherhood. “Being slim and being fit in a particular way was always something that I was gunning for,” she noted. “After having the baby, my body got so much bigger and I started getting fluff in areas I never had before.”
Since welcoming her son, Palmer has remained committed to embracing her body exactly the way it is. “If there’s one person on this earth that loves [me] for sure, it’s that baby,” she concluded. “[I’m] happy, because there’s no love like it. Somebody loving you like that, hell, who cares [what I look like]?”
That same month, Palmer launched a new merch line that was seemingly inspired by Jackson’s comment. “One thing is certain and one thing is true, IM A MOTHA, through and through! 😍,” she tweeted at the time. “‘IM A MOTHA’ and ‘Stevie to the bulls–t’ shirts available NOW!”