Keke Palmer became a millionaire at age 12 by teaching us how to spell “beauty”—a total win-win.

OPINION: Keke Palmer was interviewed for the Shay Shay Club, and it’s clear there was a lot of money to be made for Akeelah and the Bee.

Editor’s Note: This article is a journalistic article and the opinions expressed are those of the author. Read more opinions on Grio.

I don’t know exactly when it happened, but Keke Palmer became one of the favorite people of African Americans. Maybe it was when during the fun lie detector segment for Vanity Fair she, like many of us, failed to recognize Dick Cheney in the photograph and gave us one of the greatest soundbites of all time. Or maybe it was when we all realized how human she was when dealing with family situation that has become public knowledge. The possibilities are endless because I feel like Keke Palmer has been in my life forever, even though I’m exactly 14 years older than her. In fact, I was many years old today when I discovered that she is only 31 years old at the time of writing this article, and I have never felt older.

Lately favorite artist continued “Shey Shey Club” to talk about her life, career and other things under the sun, presumably to promote her just-released book, “Master Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative.” During the dating conversation (which was basically Keke, roughly speaking, All) she mentioned that she became a millionaire at age 12 and it got me thinking: what did she do at age 12 that made her a millionaire? The second question is obviously: what did I do at 12 years old? didn’t make me a millionaire? The answer was definitely to ride the bike out of the garage to see if I could land without breaking the bike or breaking any bones.

Nope. At age 12, I was introducing my parents to new and innovative ways to get frustrated.

Anyway, my curiosity about how she managed to become a millionaire at the age of 12 (this would have been 2005) led me to look up her credits on IMDB, and yes, it coincided with her breakthrough role as Akilah Anderson in the film. “Akilah and the Bee” a film that I still love to this day. I watch it whenever it’s on, and I even decided to dedicate a podcast episode to it. “Dear Culture” to the film. I sincerely thank Keke Palmer for knowing the word “prestidigitation” (even though I have no idea what it means), but most importantly, I know the word “beauty”, which comes from the Latin word for beauty. “pulcher” which means beautiful.

I can’t say this strongly enough: if it weren’t for this movie, I would never have known this word, and if Keke Palmer made a million dollars for me to know this word, then she was underpaid. The amount of times I’ve thrown the word “beauty” at people should be illegal. I don’t even use the word “beautiful” anymore; I only call my wife “gracious.” Because she is. And I only have one person to thank for that: Akilah Anderson. And Akilah Anderson is Keke Palmer.

Thank you, Keke Palmer, for helping me expand my horizons and vocabulary. And for the fact that I will always and forever know how to spell “beauty”.

Panama Jackson is a columnist for TheGrio and host of the award-winning podcast “Dear Culture” on the Grio Black Podcast Network. He writes very dark things, drinks very brown liquor, and is very handsome for a fair guy. His greatest achievement to date coincides with his darkest achievement to date: he received a call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his works (the greatest), but he did not answer the call because the caller ID said “Unknown” (the darkest achievement). ).

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