Keke Palmer felt her career was limited as a child star because of her ethnicity.
The 31-year-old actress grew to prominence playing the title character in the Nickelodeon sitcom 'True Jackson, VP' in 2008, before providing the voice of Aisha in the network's revival of 'Winx Club' and leading the cast of the television film 'Rags'.
However, she believes she was only chosen for "Black girl" parts at Nickelodeon and wasn't in the "same conversations" as her peers, Victoria Justice, Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus.
She told The Cut magazine: “I wasn’t necessarily in the same conversations as Victoria Justice or Selena Gomez or Miley Cyrus at that time.
“It was very much ‘That’s the Black show’ or ‘That’s Keke Palmer, the Black girl on the network.’”
Victoria, 31, rose to fame on Nickelodeon, playing Lola Martinez on the comedy drama series 'Zoey 101' between 2005 and 2009, Tori Vega on the teen sitcom 'Victorious' and Jordan Sands in the television comedy horror film 'The Boy Who Cried Werewolf'.
Selena, 32, starred on Disney Channel’s 'Wizards of Waverly Place' between 2007 and 2012, while Miley, also 32, made her name playing her titular alter ego in 'Hannah Montana' on Disney from 2006 until 2011.
She continued: “There is a loss of innocence that comes with the awareness that you’re treated differently that I’d accepted a long time ago.
“I don’t compare myself to anyone, but I definitely don’t compare myself to any white person.”
The Emmy Award-winning star has since gone on to star in movies including 2014's 'Animal', 2018's 'Pimp', 2019's 'Hustlers', and Jordan Peele's acclaimed 2022 sci-fi horror 'Nope', and admitted that once she'd gotten too old to be considered a child star, she had to completely rebuild her "brand".
She said: “You’re at this weird age where you’re too young for the kind of roles that you would want and you’re too old for the kind of roles you used to get. Your brand was made up of you being a kid, and you’re not a kid anymore. So you have to build a new one.”
