The first lady of #fame
Kim Kardashian West is a media phenomenon. She has 29 million followers on Instagram and 31 million followers on Twitter, and her E! show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, is considered appointment TV by a large and diverse audience.
Why? Why? Why? we might ask ourselves. Here are some very good reasons.
Beautiful in an exotic, totally exaggerated way, Kim exudes energy, sexuality, drama, determination, impetuousness and happiness. But she and her famous, entrepreneurial siblings—shepherded by a savvy, tireless matriarch—have also expanded the very definition of family.
The Kardashians are a totally modern construct. They are a blended family, of Armenian descent, with biracial pairings (Kim is married to Kanye West) and a reportedly transgender parent. They work hard, and they stick together through thick and thin.
Despite the flamboyance, the self-aggrandizement and the self-promotion (Kim set out to break the Internet by baring her bum in an extraordinary photograph), Kim comes across as an enviable big sister in a clan where everyone seems to love one another. Are they indeed today’s Brady Bunch?
Where does Kim go from here? There seem to be very few barriers to further explosive success.
Stewart is the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, an Emmy-winning TV host and a best-selling author