Keeping up with who is more popular: Kim or Kylie?
Comparing Instagram followers, Kylie is more popular than Kim—Kylie has several more million followers than her sister. However, the opposite is true when it comes to Twitter followers, with Kim having significantly more. Even when knowing these figures, the popularity of two individuals is difficult to quantify, without holding a public vote. In short, the answer to the question of “Who is more popular?” is a matter of opinion.
Keep reading to learn more about how these celebrity sisters became so popular.
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian was born on October 21, 1980, in Los Angeles, California.
Kim was always somewhat used to being in the spotlight since her father was high-profile lawyer Robert Kardashian. He represented O. J. Simpson in the criminal justice case that captured the nation in 1994.
After Kim’s parents divorced in 1991, her mother, Kris, remarried to Caitlyn Jenner (formerly known as William Bruce Jenner), who is an Olympic gold medalist. The couple had two children together: Kendall and Kylie Jenner.
Kim’s high-flying, socialite family meant she was never particularly shy around cameras. In her twenties, Kim sometimes appeared on the TV series The Simple Life (2003-2006), as a friend and stylist to Paris Hilton, who was one of the personalities the show followed.
Still, in 2007, the name Kim Kardashian was virtually unknown in the mainstream media. That was until Kim Kardashian, Superstar—a pornographic film made by Kim and singer Ray J.
The tape was released in March of 2007 by a company called Vivid Entertainment, who stated that they had purchased the tape from an undisclosed third party for a sum of $1 million.
The lengthy and explicit film had been made in 2002, while the pair were on holiday in Mexico. Kim admitted in 2018, that she had been under the influence of ecstasy whilst filming the tape.
Kim claimed that tape had been released against her will and sued the company, eventually dropping the lawsuit in return for $5 million.
Mainstream media covered the story but many outlets suspected that Kim had “leaked” the tape intentionally, in a bid to promote the upcoming reality show centered around her family—Keeping Up with the Kardashians—which aired that same year.
Kylie Jenner
Kylie was born on August 10, 1997, to Kris and Caitlyn Jenner. Since she was 10 years old, Kylie starred in Keeping Up with the Kardashians along with her parents and siblings.
Kylie would also feature in several other spin-off shows that followed the lives of her family. As an adolescent, she attended events and had small non-acting roles on television shows such as America’s Next Top Model.
In May of 2015, Kylie gained publicity for revealing that she had had lip fillers, whereas prior to this disclosure, she had maintained that she only cosmetically enhanced her lips with makeup.
As a result of this revelation, the “Kylie Jenner Challenge,” became popular on social media for a time. The trend involved sucking the air out of a cup while it was positioned on the person’s lips so that the lips would swell. Doctors recommend that you do not try this “challenge.”
The company Kylie Cosmetics was founded towards the end of 2015, and in April of 2019, she started Kylie Skin. Both companies have been hugely successful and have helped to boost her fame and popularity.
So, Kim vs. Kylie: who’s the winner?
It’s hard to tell. Kim Kardashian is older than Kylie, and therefore she has been in the public sphere for longer, and is perhaps more of a notorious personality, given the bare-all manner in which she first became famous.
It’s also worth noting that Kim now comes with other-half Kanye, and the two of them together make for a formidable famous pairing.
However, Kylie has made her own waves with her famous lips and level-headed business decisions. In any case, fame is not the same as being popular—and popularity is more difficult to measure. So, in the battle of popularity, you will have to make your own decision.