Kylie Jenner knows fame can be a double-edged sword.
Although growing up in the public eye has afforded her countless opportunities, it has also subjected the 26-year-old to steady scrutiny. Jenner has spent most of her life in front of the camera, as she was just nine years old when Keeping Up with the Kardashians premiered in 2007. Since then, Jenner and her famous siblings have faced countless controversies and critiques, including everything from cultural appropriation allegations and copyright infringement suits to her private jet usage and her so-called “exaggerated” claims about being a billionaire.
However, it’s Kylie's physical appearance that has seemingly caused the greatest stir.
“When you share so much, you open yourself up to more comments and more people’s opinions of your life. ... It’s just years and years of not feeling like my face or looks are accepted. There’s nothing anyone could ever say now that would hurt me," Jenner said in a recent New York Times interview.
Jenner’s looks were heavily criticized during her teen years after her lips became noticeably enhanced. Kylie initially claimed she achieved the fuller look through the use of makeup, but later admitted to getting lip injections.
“I have temporary lip fillers,” she said in a 2015 episode of KUWTK. “It’s just an insecurity of mine, and it’s what I wanted to do. I’m just not ready to talk to reporters about my lips yet, because everyone always picks us apart.”
Jenner, a mother of two children she shares with Travis Scott, said she is now in the midst of a branding evolution, one that emphasizes “maturity” and “sophistication.” Not only has she scaled back her social media presence, she has also changed up her look.
“Stripping down a little bit,” she said of her current style. “I don’t have this thick mane down to my butt, I don’t have lash extensions, I don’t have these long claws.”
As pointed out by the Times, Jenner once expressed her desire to step completely away from the limelight and live a much simpler life. She told Interview magazine she wanted to spend her 20s building successful businesses and then go off the grid.
“When I’m, like, 30, I want to go off the map, have a family, and live in Malibu with a farm, and just raise my own chickens,” she said. “My next goal for 2016 is to learn how to garden.”
Now that she’s approaching her 27th birthday, does Kylie—who's dating Dune 2 star Timothée Chalamet—still have plans to leave it all behind? It doesn’t seem like it.
“My personal thought on working and career is that it really does keep you young,” she said.
