Kim Kardashian has crowned ‘America’s New First Lady’ with her latest cover for Interview magazine.
The mag features an extensive Jackie Kennedy Onassis-inspired photoshoot with daughter North West and an interview by Janet Mock.
While the interview itself is pretty lengthy, Kim and Janet briefly touched on beauty and the consciousness of raising North, a mixed Black child, in today’s world.
MOCK: No matter what folks may say about you, you are a beauty icon, because you’ve challenged standards of beauty to make it a bit browner, a bit bronzer, a bit curvier. I wonder how conscious you are of raising a mixed black girl in the world?
KARDASHIAN WEST: I’m very conscious of it. Kanye always has his family around and people who look like my daughter—that’s important to me. She’s obsessed with her curly hair, and if she finds someone who has the same hair, she runs to them and is like, “You have curly hair like me?” And we get to talk about it. We also talk about it with my niece Penelope, because she and North look really different, but they’re best friends and they’re together all the time.
MOCK: I love that. I think that often people are uncomfortable talking about identity and race, but on the show your family tackles a lot of these topics head-on, as well as the trans stuff.
KARDASHIAN WEST: We want to raise our kids to be really aware. I think that’s all you can do. The more you talk about things and keep them out in the open, the more they won’t be taboo. Kids are already so open. They say anything. So if you educate them, they feel like they have this knowledge and then they feel empowered.
Kim also spoke about being ‘underestimated’ and not having any talent.
MOCK: Someone who mentors me has said that one of the greatest gifts you can ever have as a public person, and a businessperson, is the gift of being underestimated. That sound bite continues to follow you and your family—the sense of, “They have no talent. They’re just famous for being famous.”
KARDASHIAN WEST: 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.” 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.”
MOCK: Well, no one makes something like $14 million in mere hours, like you did during the launch of KKW Beauty. That doesn’t just happen. That takes a lot of thought and planning and work.
KARDASHIAN WEST: You can say a lot of things about me, but you cannot say I don’t work hard. I don’t sing. I don’t dance. I don’t act. But I am not lazy.
Check out more photos from the spread below. For the complete story head on over to V magazine.
