Despite stepping away from Keeping Up With The Kardashians to focus on becoming a model, Kendall Jenner never stopped growing in Instagram followers over the years, making her one of the most popular Kardashian-Jenner sisters of all. It wasn't always clear to the KUWTK fans what Kendall would end up doing with her life as she outgrew her teen years on the show. When Kendall's interest for fashion first came to the surface, many viewers were skeptical about her clothing line with sister Kylie. She then expressed a desire for modeling, and while it was clear that Kendall fit the traditional "model" archetype, her reality TV notoriety could be a hindrance.
Indeed, it wasn't exactly a straightforward path for Kendall Jenner to transition from Keeping Up With The Kardashians star to supermodel. It is easy to assume that fame can always help a person succeed in showbiz, but the fashion industry has been historically "precious" about the types of people that it allows to come inside, as well as the types of people that aren't invited to the party. It took a while for Kendall to detach herself from the KUWTK brand, but she eventually succeed at it and started to walk and photograph for major fashion houses all over the world.
In fact, the story of Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner going from social media influencers to world-famous supermodels is now becoming its own standard of sorts for up-and-coming models. There is no denying that fashion houses are now interested in each model's social media following before booking them for shows, and Kendall's IG popularity speaks volumes for her reach. Starting with 16 million followers in 2014, 42 million in 2015, 69 million in 2016, and 85 million in 2017, the KUWTK star has enjoyed consistent growth on Instagram as her modeling career kept growing.
By 2018, Kendall Jenner was already a well-established model with a very impressive resume in fashion and a reach of over 100 million followers on Instagram. While it is true that Kendall's growth has been more modest ever since, she has never stopped outdoing herself on social media without even trying as hard as many of her sisters do. Over the years, Kendall grew to 119 million in 2019 and 143 million in 2020. As of March 2021, Kendall has accumulated an audience of 156 million IG followers. This is well behind her sisters Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, but Kendall is the third most-followed person in her family nonetheless.
Kendall Jenner has conquered the world beyond Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Alas, now that she has the new 818 Tequila brand to promote, is it time for the supermodel to come back to reality TV for good? The fans will stay tuned to find out what happens next.
Sources: Kendall Jenner's Instagram