Keke Palmer covers the Spring Digital issue of Harper’s Bazaar. I love her and her memes. Keke is basically a quintuple threat: a singer, dancer, actress, talk-show host and online personality. She’s funny and a great comedic actress, although I guess I’ve slept on her music career so far? Anyway, Bazaar just has a nice interview with her – you can read the full piece here. She chats about social media, Hustlers and how memes are so important.

On the philosophy behind her online presence: “If I’m gonna have something to say, or if I’m gonna be someone that’s looked at, I wanna try my best to uplift other people like me. Whether they be Black, whether they be women, whether they be millennials, whether they be the underdog, whatever. If I can be that voice, why not?”

On why she loves memes: “I see memes as, like, a real way to feel seen. I know that sounds dramatic, but to me, memes are almost like our generation’s version of the comic strips in the newspaper. Not only do you get laughter, but you feel like, ‘I’m not alone. Someone feels the same way. Someone understands.’ It’s a brief moment where you feel a communal connection to a concept. Sometimes when I’m in a bad mood or if I’m feeling an emotion, I’ll put the word in, and I’ll add meme, and I just read all of them to make myself feel better.”

On Jennifer Lopez’s Oscar snub for her performance in Hustlers: “Honestly, I feel like everybody deserves their respect and their opportunity to be acknowledged in that way. But I will say that the way my mom raised me, when it comes to the arts, the point isn’t to be validated by the [awards] acknowledgements. So I felt like the fact that [Lopez] wasn’t nominated didn’t take anything away from her performance. To me, the win was the fact that people got to see it and receive the emotion, the feeling. That was the reward.”

On having limits to how much of her private life she’ll share publicly: “I don’t really do relationship stuff online, mainly because I don’t know how I would do it without looking, like, cheesy or something, you know? Yes, I’m a hundred percent authentic, but there is stuff that I do save for family and friends. I do have a Finsta. Sometimes I forget to post on there, ’cause I do post a lot of real moments and raw moments on my main Instagram page. But at the same time, when it comes to romance, [posting about it] doesn’t really come naturally to me, so I feel like, why force it?”

On second guessing personal relationships: “I think a lot about, like, Does this person really like me for me? And it’s not just romantic relationships. It’s friends too. That wavering, that’s the most traumatic thing about fame. And that can really tear at your self-esteem if you let it. ’Cause the reality is you really might be a great person, you really might be that fun to be around, you might be that lovable, but because you’re always having to protect yourself from what people may want from you, you can’t even embrace the fact that maybe it’s all true.”

[From Harper’s Bazaar]

That’s the most traumatic part about fame, not knowing if someone wants to be with you for you or because you’re famous? I mean… I guess? While I love Keke and I respect her hustle (big time), I also don’t feel like she’s as famous as she thinks she is? Is that harsh? As for what she says about Jennifer Lopez and Hustlers… Keke stole every scene she was in and if the film had gotten more critical recognition, there would have been talk of how strong the ensemble was. But because it was almost exclusively about women and strippers, of course it was pushed aside. And I disagree with her about the awards nominations too.

Photos courtesy of Adrienne Raquel for Harper’s Bazaar, sent from promotional Bazaar email.