Kendall Jenner Says Growing Up in the Spotlight Was Like Being Hannah Montana Without the "Disguise"
"We lived as much of a normal life as, I think, was possible and I'm so grateful for that."
![Kendall Jenner during Vogue World: Paris at Place Vendome on June 23, 2024 in Paris, France.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/qWBX5vyoBC96NeoaB5gKmD-415-80.jpg)
Kendall Jenner is opening up about what life was like under the spotlight as a child star on a reality television show.
During a recent interview with Emma Chamberlain for the latest episode of the Anything Goes podcast, the famous member of the Kardashian/Jenner clan compared appearing on Keeping Up With the Kardashians as a child to the life of fictitious television and movie character Hannah Montana.
“It’s a little Hannah Montana-y in a way," Jenner explained. "[But] I didn’t have a disguise, or I didn’t have a physical shift."
For the uninitiated, Hannah Montana was the alter ego of Miley Stewart (played by Miley Cyrus) who led a double life as a famous pop star.
“We went to school. We went to school as long as we could,” Jenner explained. “I started home school, 11th and 12th grade … so even though we had a TV show at home, we were going to regular school all day and had our friends that we had from before the show started.”
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Kendall went on to say that while appearing on a reality television show that followed her family's life wasn't “always easy, it did feel kind of normal.”
“We lived as much of a normal life as, I think, was possible and I’m so grateful for that," she added.
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In the same interview, Jenner discussed what life is now like as a model, including the not-so-glamorous side that often includes lonely nights away from home and family.
"I'm not gonna sit here and say that I've had the toughest journey. I think I've been extremely fortunate," she said at the time. "But I also have had my own set of challenges, whether it's [being] overworked or not getting a job that I would've really loved to get.
"I've had really dark nights where I've been in random cities and just hysterically crying myself to sleep because I haven't been home in three months and I've been pretty much alone the entire time," she added.
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Jenner first appeared on television when she was just 10 years old.
Still, she says that despite doing “very adult things at a really young age” which, sadly, included having to learn how to deal with an endless onslaught of "internet hate," the model said she's grateful for the overall experience.
“Overall, I am really grateful because I think it could have been a lot worse," she said.
Danielle Campoamor is Marie Claire's weekend editor covering all things news, celebrity, politics, culture, live events, and more. In addition, she is an award-winning freelance writer and former NBC journalist with over a decade of digital media experience covering mental health, reproductive justice, abortion access, maternal mortality, gun violence, climate change, politics, celebrity news, culture, online trends, wellness, gender-based violence and other feminist issues. You can find her work in The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, New York Magazine, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, TODAY, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, InStyle, Playboy, Teen Vogue, Glamour, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, Prism, Newsweek, Slate, HuffPost and more. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and their two feral sons. When she is not writing, editing or doom scrolling she enjoys reading, cooking, debating current events and politics, traveling to Seattle to see her dear friends and losing Pokémon battles against her ruthless offspring. You can find her on X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and all the places.
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