For the last couple of days, the jabs thrown at Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" song and music video have put the couple in the headlines. But a quick look at Kim's social media will show no indication of that controversy—just tweets about Kim's new Interview cover, children, and projects.
This isn't because Kim isn't aware—every tweet is intentional, in fact. Because, as she tells Janet Mock in Interview, she is the family's Olivia Pope when it comes to crisis management. With any Kardashian controversy, Kim strategizes with her sisters the right public response—or lack of response—to it via the family's group text. As Kim explains:
I'm really aware of what's going on. If there's something being said about one of my sisters, I'll be the first to jump in a group. We have family chats that happen all day, every day. A lot of us are traveling, so one of us will inevitably wake up at four in the morning to 30 messages. I'll be the first to jump in and say, "Guys, I'm seeing this. This is not cool. Tell me what's going on." I'm usually the ringleader for stuff like that, and I'll say, "You're wrong. You need to apologize." Or, "This needs to be fixed. Everyone just lay low, chill out, don't say anything. It doesn't matter if it's all lies. I know it's frustrating. I know you want to speak up." We always have to remind ourselves of stuff like that. We don't do everything perfectly, but there really are so many lies, so many rumors.
Kim is very purposeful about giving her children as normal of a life possible, too—even with the family's ongoing participation in Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
Kim limits their on-screen exposure, she says: "I obviously get a little bit more protective of my daughter because that's always been such a struggle: 'Do we have her on the show? Don't we?' We have strict rules about the kids. Some seasons they're not on at all. Some seasons they're on a little bit, just to show a bit of personality, although there are never storylines about them. But then there's social media, on which I've always been really open. When I'm out and people call North's name, that's when it's weird for me. She lives such a normal life, believe it or not, at home."
Kim also now takes issue with people who accuse her of being famous for nothing. "I used to say, 'I love being underestimated.' But now when I hear, 'They're so not talented,'—ten years into it—I'm kind of like, 'Okay, give a girl a little respect,'" she says. "If I'm so not talented, if I do nothing, then how is my career my reality? And I poke fun at it, like when I was on the cover of Forbes I posted the hashtag #NotBadForAGirlWithNoTalent. I don't mind being underestimated because it does fuel me. But after a while, I do feel like, 'C'mon, you can recognize a little bit.'"
"You can say a lot of things about me, but you cannot say I don't work hard," she continues. "I don't sing. I don't dance. I don't act. But I am not lazy."
Read Kim's full Interview profile here.
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
