Entertainer Keke Palmer released her debut memoir, Master of Me, on Tuesday, November 19. The book is a raw and emotional reflection on the lessons she’s learned about taking control of her life.
To promote the memoir, Palmer released a short film, “The Master,” with her network KeyTV. The film combines clips of her performing in a musical hip-hop routine intercut with a monologue. It ends with home videos showing her with her son.
Palmer rose to fame at age 12, starring as the titular character in Akeelah and the Bee. Since then, she has acted in over 50 movies and TV shows, including her starring role in True Jackson VP. Her memoir is the latest from a Nickelodeon child star, following Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died in 2022. The documentary Quiet on the Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV also explored the experiences of the network’s child actors in the 2010s.
In Master of Me, Palmer dives into the traumatic experiences that shaped her as a child star and the lessons she learned in overcoming them. The book celebrates her resilience and embraces the authenticity she has built her career on. Her memoir also touches on racism she has faced in the industry, naming a particular incident while filming Scream Queens. Though Palmer uses pseudonyms when addressing the transgressor, many early readers speculated that the racist comments she refers to in the book came from Lea Michele.
The memoir highlights successes in her adult career, including becoming the first Black woman to host the MTV Music Video Awards, the youngest talk show host in history, and the first Black woman to win “Outstanding Host for a Gameshow” at the 2023 Emmys.
“Master of Me is about finding balance in an unbalanced world. I think that has been through performance, my sense of purpose, and knowing that I have power, finding my currency,” she said. “The gaze is always there, but the trick is understanding it. They can look all they want, but they’ll only see what you allow them to see.”
Written with Palmer’s signature humor and snappy wit, Master of Me is a fun and inspiring read for any millennial woman looking for the strength to rewrite their own story.
