Keke Palmer on how opening up about her PCOS diagnosis helped 'empower' her
Keke Palmer said sharing her diagnosis of polycystic ovarian syndrome helped “empower” her.
The Scream Queens alum appeared on The Tamron Hall Show on Tuesday to talk about her experience with the hormone condition, which affects more than 5 million women in the United States a year.
“It answered a lot of questions, not only to why I had acne, but why I grew hair on my face, or under my chin. I had like a little beard going on that I had to shave every couple of days,” she explained. “I started to zero in on the fact that, to deal with acne past puberty the way that I did, there had to be something deeper going on. That’s when I came upon PCOS, and also things I had to change in terms of my diet.”
When Hall asked about how Palmer felt about being a role model for others, she said sharing her diagnosis — which she first posted about on Instagram in Dec. 2020 — was more about showing herself love.
“It’s a responsibility, and sometimes it can be pressureful, and other times it can happen naturally. I do try to be thoughtful about my platform,” she said. “I’ll be honest, though, when it came to PCOS and my acne struggles, it was to empower myself. It was to give myself the opportunity to say ‘You know, just own who you are. Love yourself.’”
Palmer’s lengthy post on Instagram about her condition showed the Hustlers actress — who will next appear in Jordan Peele’s upcoming film Nope — struggling with a bout of acne.
“Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome has been attacking me from the inside out my entire life and I had no idea,” she wrote at the time. “My acne has been so bad that people in my field offered to pay for me to get it fixed. I tried EVERYTHING. I did Accutane TWICE. People say drink water, have a better diet, but I did all that, I ate all the “right” things, my blood tests were fine. But it took ME taking a personal look into my family that has a history of diabetes and obesity, to understand what was ACTUALLY happening with me.”
She added that the “least harmful thing PCOS can bring is acne.”
To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so f— fine,” she continued. “MY ACNE AINT NEVER STOPPED ME. But we don’t have to accept this. Now I can really help KEKE! And I love her so it’s ON.”
Following her post, she also helped others cover up acne they want to hide with a tutorial video she shared on Instagram.
"We're not perfect, but we can be if we want to be," Palmer joked while doing her makeup. "Honestly, who wants to be perfect all the time?"
