Kendall Jenner is currently the highest paid model in the world, but even if she weren’t, both she and her family have enough money for her to never work again. Personally, the whole modeling and fashion industry is confusing—I don’t understand why certain people are considered attractive enough to wear clothes on a platform and others aren’t. But I do get that it’s pretty hard to get noticed as an individual and a lot of young women and men get burnt out on the industry before that happens.
It’s not surprising then that a lot of people took offense to some comments Jenner made about her career while being interviewed by Love Magazine. Her quote was posted to Instagram, but has since been deleted, according to Buzzfeed. Probably because of how intense the backlash was to what some are perceiving as criticism of other women.
Jenner is quoted as saying:
Since the beginning we’ve been super selective about what shows I would do. I was never one of those girls who would do, like, 30 shows a season or whatever the f*ck those girls do. More power to them. But I had a million jobs, not only catwalks, but everything else.
Taken at face value, it kind of seems like Jenner is deriding other models who do a lot of shows, and giving herself a pat no the back for being “super selective.” Being super selective is definitely a hard thing to do when you need to make money, but Jenner doesn’t. She can do as much or as little work as she wants, which is definitely not the case for most other models.
A number of models used Instagram to air their grievances, adding commentary to the post, like Daria Strokous, who amended Jenner’s 30 show guess to 70, and said that other models are proud to be working so much:
Luma Grothe wrote that she struggled for years to get work, separated from family and uh, food:
Irina Djuranovic commented how “easy” it has come for Kendall Jenner to be called a super model:
And Faretta straight up called her lazy:
And Ukrainian model Ratner had some colorful suggestions:
Popular Instagram account Sh*t Model Management weighed in on why young women are doing 30 shows, if they can get them:
They also mention Jenner’s anxiety, which has come up recently as a reason for why she occasionally cancels appearances and jobs. It might also explain why she can’t keep pace with other models.
He reps also told Buzzfeed that her comments are being misinterpreted:
It’s not what she meant. The quote was taken out of context. Mid-thought she realized the number of shows some models walk a season is closer to 80. The point was that it’s their path and “the more power to them.” She admires their hard work and dedication. It’s an accomplishment.
It sure is. I wouldn’t want to be Kendall Jenner at her next fashion show. The green room can be an unfriendly place when everyone’s glaring at you.