Kendall Comes ​​​​​​​Of Age

The supermodel opens up about fears for her safety, her famous clan, and growing up a tomboy.

- Dan Peres

 

There are reminders. They come involuntarily, it seems—like hiccups—every few minutes.

They pepper the conversation, punctuating nothing of great consequence, but they are useful…necessary, even, at times.

“I’m young,” Kendall Jenner will say when discussing her love life.

“But I’m young,” she adds when talking about her first house.

“I know. I’m young,” she declares after mentioning how much she wants to be a mom someday.

She’s only 21 years old, yet she’s lived a long life. Or at least that’s how it feels. She and her colossally famous parents and siblings have managed to reach into nearly every corner of popular culture like some mutant octopus with an unbreakable choke hold on the collective consciousness. It feels like they’ve been there—in our heads, on our screens, everywhere—for ages, as much a part of the fabric of this country as the American flag itself, albeit one that’s been heavily bedazzled and trimmed with fur.

So, yes, the reminders are helpful. Kendall Jenner is, in fact, young.

“When I turned 20, I remember being like, ‘Shit! I’m in my 20s.’ Everyone says, ‘These are the best years of your life. Live it up!’” she says. “So maybe I’m just reminding myself.”

Who could blame her? Kendall was 11 when Keeping Up With the Kardashians debuted in the fall of 2007, opening her life, and the lives of the rest of the Jenner-Kardashian family, to public examination—and, naturally, criticism. But life moves fast when it’s measured by Nielsen ratings and social media followers and millions of dollars in revenue.