As long as you’re alive and breathing, you have a say in what direction your life will take. Just keep living.

After seven years of marriage, multiple miscarriages, and three beautiful children, Loreal’s life changed in an instant when she found out that her husband, her first and only love, had a secret. At first, they embraced an untraditional solution, separating romantically but choosing to live in the same house to continue raising their children together. But ultimately, at thirty-two, Loreal would need to start over in life, find herself, and pave her own way forward.

Loreal used to make decisions based on internal fear and arbitrary timelines—until life started making decisions for her. In her inspirational memoir, she decides to step up and start taking control of her own destiny. Choosing to look back and learn from her past, with new insight, Loreal draws from the wisdom of her grandmother and her own personal journey to embolden readers to take control of their futures and turn change into fuel for self-discovery. By remembering her grandmother’s phrase, “keep living,” she realizes that no matter what your past looks like, you are responsible for your own future.

Born in Chicago, IL, Loreal Palmer grew up in the small village of Robbins, IL. In 2005, her parents moved the family to Los Angeles, CA, as her younger sister, Lauren “Keke” Palmer’s career took off.  Loreal was homeschooled during high school while simultaneously traveling across the country with her sister writing music and occasionally singing backup during performances.

Loreal was recently the breakout star of ABC’s, Claim to Fame, which streams on HULU. The show debuted with the highest ratings across all networks for women and the second highest ratings across all networks for total viewers, following The Bachelorette.

Loreal won the competition by winning over the hearts and minds of her housemates and viewers by choosing to be transparent about her experiences growing up and feeling different, as well as the dissolution of her marriage and unconventional friendship that followed.  Since then, she has been flooded with people sharing their stories of being teased, bullied, self-consciousness, and how much it meant to them to watch her journey of self-empowerment.

Loreal attended Pasadena City College before transferring to California State University, Northridge, where she is pursuing her degree in English Literature and Creative Writing in hopes of teaching at her alma mater someday. When she’s not busy with academia or her kids, she can be found filming her horror entertainment podcast, Live or Die, with Frank for KeyTV network.