With over 44 million followers on Instagram, Kylie Jenner has had a huge impact on trends among teenage girls. Many describe her appearance as “flawless,” but others think she is artificial looking, with her plump lips and ever-changing hair color. She has influenced many girls to buy overpriced lipliner and “edgy” clothing, idealizing her privileged lifestyle.

Jenner is the youngest member of the Kardashian family, but lately she seems to be sparking more controversy than any of her older, infamous siblings. While commenting on her fashion choices, social media users have also discussed and criticized the way Jenner appropriates black culture. Jenner has definitely earned this criticism, and she appears to want all the attention that she can get.

Earlier this year, there was a  trend on social media called the “Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge”, which was a “challenge” that consisted of people posting pictures and videos of them sucking on shot glasses, making their lips look grotesquely oversized.

The way Jenner “plumps up” her lips is copying a  facial characteristic of many people of color, who have naturally fuller lips. While black women can be made fun of for their larger lips, popular culture promotes this very same feature in white women, who as a consequence may work very hard to accomplish this look. They use certain makeup methods such as “plumping” lip glosses and overlining the natural shape of the lips with lipliner in order to make them look fuller.

Jenner also shares a clothing line with her older sister Kendall, who is a model. The line at PacSun carries many “boho” teen trends, which, like Jenner, are overpriced and nothing special.

Jenner even has her own app, which gives fans insight into her life, like what her bathroom looks like and what lip products she uses.

People can claim that she’s a teenager and too young to know her effect, but young black girls aren’t too young to feel it. It’s not an excuse. Kylie Jenner is a cultural appropriator, she’s looking for attention, and she doesn’t get to use her youth as an excuse for her ignorant “style”.
People need to stop idolizing Kylie Jenner. She is an unfortunately overly-sexualized 18 year-old who is living in the shadow of her older sisters. Although she has a tremendous fan base who want to know every detail of her life, many want to stop hearing about her lip injections and expensive clothes. She is a problematic figure who needs to stop being praised for her “style.” Social media and the press need to leave her alone and start talking about topics that matter.