Keke Palmer

You might think you need to earn more, prove more, secure one more opportunity, collect one more accolade, or just keep moving long enough until you finally feel safe.

When in reality, you don't need another achievement.

You need a break.

Okay?

You need a break long enough to look around, take stock, and feel gratitude for what you've already built.

It's important we check the systems we're still running on.

Some of the functions that saved you may be keeping you from the very you you were always trying to save.

My parents survived inside of systems that never fully saw them.

Learning how to live instead of just surviving became my way of returning some of that visibility.

I went to Bali this past year and finally spent some one-on-one time with that little girl who left Robbins, Illinois all those years ago.

So please, allow me to reintroduce myself.

My name is Lauren Kiana Palmer, and I'm the CEO of the Kiki Palmer Company, a company I created out of nothing, with my mother, my father, and my three siblings.

I'm just a girl that wanted herself and her family out of poverty.

And once we was out, I forgot to let myself free.

Yet I'm here today, grateful to say my parents showed me how to survive.

I showed them how to dream.

And my son is showing me how to live.