#kardashins

I am not ashamed to say that I watch Keeping up with the Kardashian’s. I’ve tuned in pretty infrequently lately, but when it came time for the youngest of the Kardashian/Jenner clan, Kylie Jenner, to fess up about lip-gate, I tuned in with a bucket of popcorn and a glass of pinot in my hand.

I wondered how the perfectly-imperfect soundbite, publicity juggernauts that the Kardashian’s are would spin justify the reasoning behind a 17-year-old girl getting her lips done. I watched as older sisters Kim and Khloe repeatedly brushed it off telling Kylie and their audience of hundreds of millions of impressionable young girls in TV Land to “do what makes you happy.”

As wholesome as that episode may have been I was a little bit unsettled by the end result. That statement “Do what makes you happy” seemed problematic, a bit out of place in this situation. Don’t get me wrong, I wholeheartedly believe that an individual has to search for happiness and define happiness for themselves. This is coming from a person who did the Instagram challenge “100 happy days” during a point and time in my life where I was standing on the precipice of depression and self-loathing. I had to fight for my happiness and make my happiness a priority in my life. Essentially I had to do more things that made me happy, whether that was spending a whole weekend in my PJs watching Netflix guilt free, or taking more frequent trips to see my family, or quitting my job without any plan for the future, which I did. Ultimately I had to do what made me happy.

I’m not here to shame or bash anyone from finding their own happiness, but telling a 17-year-old girl, a girl whose family stands on a very high and very  public platform, a girl whose mere act of “doing what made her happy” spawned the #KylieJennerLipChallenge that resulted in young people documenting their attempts to enhance their lips resulting in severe damage and bodily harm; telling this young girl that it was okay to undergo surgery to change how she looks and subsequently how she feels is problematic.

At 17 I was racked with insecurities as most young girls are. I was insecure about my weight and my hair (when I had a perm and could barely put my hair into a pony-tail). I was insecure around guys; I doubted if I was worth anyone’s time or if they found me pretty, sexy, interesting, or funny. This is something that most girls could relate too. Combating those low points in your life, reinforcing yourself, having positive role models to reaffirm the beauty in you is how you overcome those insecurities. It’s how we react to the pressures and obstacles of life that defines who you are.

So who is Kylie Jenner? She’s a girl of privilege. She’s made more money in her young life than I’ve made in my lifetime. She’s just purchased a million dollar home, I have yet to even purchase a car! It seems to me (from the view of my couch) that Kylie Jenner is an insecure 17-year- old just like everyone else, but unlike everyone else she throw money at the problem. Again, it’s how we react to the pressures and obstacles of life that defines who you are.