Kim Kardashian’s Quiet Resilience: Supporting Kanye West, Defying Haters & Remaining Her Family’s Pillar of Strength
Kim Kardashian is known for being a trendsetter, a TV star and a new kind of celebrity, someone who forever changed the social media game and made a career out of being herself.
What she doesn’t get enough credit for, however, is her resilience.
As much as any celebrity opens him or herself up for relentless criticism the moment they scan Twitter or Facebook, or venture forth a viewpoint in an interview, Kim has had a unique relationship with public opinion. While she has millions of fans who follow her on Twitter, read her app and play her mobile game, making her a very wealthy woman in the process, the level of abuse she’s nonchalantly stared down would have a less seasoned star quaking in her heels.
Not only has Kim never been one to clap back when the online commentary gets rough, saving her rebuttals for the craziest of rumors, the fact that she deals and has emerged none the worse for wear and confident in her choices is remarkable in and of itself.
“I totally attribute my career to social media,” Kim said on 60 Minutes this fall (in an interview that of course attracted a backlash because nothing occurs anymore without backlash). “It is a talent to have a brand that’s really successful off of getting people to like you for being you.” She acknowledged that being so visible had its “pitfalls,” but “for me, I can handle it.”
Her strength, while certainly established in the Hollywood arena, has been tested since then, however. In the very early morning hours of Monday, Oct. 3, in Paris, Kim was robbed at gunpoint, tied up and forced into the bathtub in her apartment while thieves made off with at least $10 million in jewelry, including a new diamond ring from husband Kanye West.
She hasn’t posted on social media since. She’s been online, and staffers have updated her app and website. But the Instagram account that faithfully posts her Snapchats has had to resort to posting filler to stay on the map and, for all intents and purposes, Kim has gone quiet. (She talked to 60 Minutes before the robbery, but the package didn’t air until several weeks after.)
Milestones that otherwise would have had her snapping away have passed, such as her own birthday, Kendall Jenner‘s 21st birthday and the arrival of Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna‘s daughter, Dream.
“It’s…
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