You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.

I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

Multi-hyphenate entertainer Kiki Palmer has spent more than 20 years mastering the art of performing on stage and off.

But somewhere along the way, she realized that the very

skills that carried her family out of poverty were also keeping her trapped. Today, I'm going to

share my story with you, not as a survivor's soliloquy, but to expose a pattern. Because survival

can be so effective, you don't realize when it's no longer serving you.

In this talk, Kiki introduces us to the side of herself that the public never got to see.

She tells the story of her childhood in Robbins, Illinois, where performing was their ticket to a better life,

to a career built on never stopping, never resting, and never letting

herself be still.

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 survive. I showed them how to dream. And my son is showing me how to live. Her talk is coming up

right after a short break and stick around after. We caught up with Ted curator Chi Perlman

to share a few thoughts on what it was like working with Kiki behind the scenes.

And now our TED Talk of the Day.

What's up, everybody?

I'm Kiki Palmer.

You might know me from the Spelling Bee movie, Akkela and the Bee, my Nickelodeon TV show,

True Jackson VP, Jordan Peels, nope, maybe my viral meme where I was sorry to that man.

...