With Kanye West out of the picture and a reality show that no one besides BuzzFeed knows is airing, the Kardashian PR machine has never been harder at work.
It’s not that the family’s industrious matriarch, Kris Jenner, has ever taken a day off from puppeteering her daughters’ lives since they were first thrust into the spotlight, nearly two decades ago. But an avalanche of scandals involving the women’s not-so-great partners and a more censored approach to documenting their lives have propelled the family’s already slippery reputation into a more dire place—at least, in terms of popularity. (Let’s face it: These people will never not be raking in tons of cash.)
Things are apparently so bad that the only way certain family members can receive the attention they want these days is by revolting against their own hard-earned brand.
This is essentially the impression I got from this week’s Wall Street Journal profile of Kendall Jenner, titled, “How Kendall Jenner Wants To Ditch The Nepo Baby Playbook.” More specifically, the piece positions the high-earning model as going against the Kardashian Playbook—acting like the Prince Harry of her family, if you will.
Most of this puff piece, which features quotes from several family members and Hailey Bieber, is spent trying (and failing) to distinguish the model from her sisters and other beauty influencers like them, by regarding her entrepreneurial choices and purported desire for privacy. (Sure!) Jenner’s less of a flashy girlboss and more of a lax, self-effacing business bro. The evidence, though, is not exactly convincing!
No offense to the journalist, who’s essentially been tasked with Mission: Impossible here, a.k.a. making Jenner sound anything but basic. However, I have to laugh at the deeply inaccessible note this article begins on—and not just the lead photo of Jenner wearing a $1,500 plain tank top.
This bonkers profile begins with us learning that Jenner’s mare, Dylan (with help from some unnamed handmaid horse), has just given birth to a “lanky bay colt” that she’s “obsessed with.” (If you watched The Kardashians Season 2, you’ve heard about her mission to utilize Dylan’s Olympian sperm.) I understand that this is the Wall Street Journal. But if we’re going to frame this woman as some kind of nepo-baby renegade, maybe don’t open with the most stereotypical “rich California girl” hobby. Jenner’s current Netflix queue would tell me more about her personality than the fact that she rides horses as a “salve.”
More ridiculously, the article commends her on keeping the news of her horse’s birth private, “despite her very visible life.” “There was neither a headline in the Daily Mail nor an Instagram grid post announcing the news to her 291 million followers,” the article reads. I’m not sure this news would’ve broken the internet, as evidenced by the lack of headlines I’ve seen about her new horse since this profile dropped. Anyway, it’s not so private anymore!
What else is there about Jenner that makes her different from her fellow nepo babies selling facial creams and shapewear, you might ask? For those who somehow haven’t heard, she has her own tequila brand called 818, which is doing quite well, insofar as it’s been on display in every liquor store I’ve been in since 2021. Its existence was also the straw that broke the camel’s back of Kathy Hilton and Kyle Richards’ relationship on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills last season.
This is maybe where I would’ve pointed out the disparity between men and women business owners in the alcohol industry, just to give the piece some substance—even if a rich, white woman selling tequila isn’t exactly revolutionary. Instead, there’s an entire paragraph simply listing Jenner’s responsibilities as a tequila founder, like doing research and development in Mexico: “She’s just as likely these days to be in Dallas for a meeting with 818 distributors as Paris for a fashion shoot.” Um, I would hope so??
Then—right before my head exploded—Jenner tries to convince us that she’s not really “built for this life,” like her other sisters are. “I consider myself one of the luckiest people on the planet to be able to live the life that I live,” she says. “But I do think that it’s challenging for me a lot more than it’s not.” (Where’s the proof??) Kris backs up this claim, noting that her second-youngest daughter wasn’t a “frequent participant” in their first reality show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians. I’m sure Kris likes to imagine this was a conscious choice Kendall made as a 12-year-old, like she wasn’t just off playing hopscotch somewhere.
Ultimately, when it comes to highlighting Jenner’s supposed discomfort with fame, this profile can only land on the fact that she’s more of a homebody than a typical celebrity who wants to be seen—although paparazzi photos of her going all over Los Angeles with the most famous male artist in the world, Bad Bunny, say otherwise. I would also imagine that, if you’re insanely rich, inviting all your friends over to your lavish home is a better alternative than going to a club.
Anyway, the best part of this article is when the writer refers to Jenner as “a card-carrying member of the tea-drinking, bath-taking, journal-writing club.” Aren’t we all?
By all means, Kendall has officially reached Prince Harry status, not because she doesn’t enjoy the spotlight or loathes the benefits of being in a wealthy dynasty. She just likes to feign discomfort any chance she gets. Enough!
Check out our past Nepo Babies of the Week.
