You know, people often come down hard on the Kardashian family. Critics of the world's most famous reality TV clan often slate them as nothing more than shameless self-promoters and self-obsessed socialites who embody everything vacuous and vain about modern society. But isn't that just being cynical for the sake of cynicism? Maybe Kardashian-bashers should look on the bright side, and see just how much good they've done for their many millions of followers and fans. For instance, take transgender teenager Kairah Kelly, who struggled with her gender identity throughout adolescence and childhood, until she was inspired by Kim Kardashian's style and looks to become a woman.
Kairah, (who was assigned a male identity at birth as Tyler Kelly) spent approximately £15,000 on lip fillers, hair extensions, make-up, designer clothes, and a personal trainer, in order to sculpt her body to Kardashianesque proportions. So far she's splurged out of £800 hair extensions, £3,840 lip fillers, £4,800 on cosmetics and £5,250 on Christian Louboutin shoes. She's even started wearing a corset-like waist trainer to emulate Kim's hourglass figure. But despite the eye-watering cost of looking like her idol, Kairah insists that it was all worth it.
Kairah's journey towards her current gender was a convoluted and difficult one. As a boy, Kairah spent most of her life envious of girls, spending most of her time with them. She came out as bisexual at age 11, and as purely gay at age 13. But despite coming out twice, she still felt restless and anxious, and not comfortable in her on skin. It wasn't until she watched a vlog by a trans person discussion gender dysphoria that she finally understood the ennui she felt, and decided to come out as trans herself. By September 2015, she had decided to live completely as a woman, and used social media to work as an influencer, earning money by promoting beauty products on Facebook.
In a recent interview she stated: "I don’t care about the money, I finally feel like my true self. I get my fillers done every four months as my pout is what helps me feel like me. Without them I worry I am going to get found out, that people will know I was born a man. I feel like I am being suffocated, but I know it is worth it ... I want to have a tiny waist, just like Kim Kardashian and am willing to go through pain to achieve that. I admit I do digitally enhance some of my photos, but they are 80 per cent really me."
Now Kariah has revealed that she is in a relationship with a man she met online, and that she is full of hope for the future. "We’ve only been together six weeks but it’s going really well," she stated, "I told him before we even met up that I am trans, but he was so supportive. I don’t want to give away any more details about him as it is such early days, but I feel really happy. I am finally the true me."
It sounds to me like Kariah is living her best life. Personally, I think Kim Kardashian herself would be proud of her.
