Is Kim Kardashian’s reign as a ‘beauty queen’ about to end?

The reality show Keeping Up The Kardashians is to end next year, having launched Kim Kardashian into the spotlight for good

It was announced last night that after 14 years and 20 seasons, the reality television show Keeping Up With The Kardashians is to air its final season next year. The show which made social media celebrities of the Kardashian and Jenner clan, whose lives and key media moments were played in the public eye, has run out of storylines and plot twists. Not drawing to a close, however, is the impact the Kardashians have on the millennial’s idea of what it means to be beautiful.

Let’s flashback to almost 15 years ago, when the Kardashians, with Kim at the helm as the family’s main poster girl, brought their uber-glamorous selves to our screens. They promoted a beauty ideal through their reality show, and subsequently through their huge social media following, that was completely unattainable. Their idea of beauty, and the look that hundreds of thousands of their young followers would try to emulate consists of a heavily made-up face with contoured cheekbones, beige-nude lipstick, perfectly arched eyebrows and the longest, fluttery lashes you could get your hands on.

They’ve spawned a million imitations - you only need to scroll through Instagram or YouTube to see beauty videos of young girls trying to recreate a Kardashian ‘look’, and the 2010s will forever be defined as the decade that created the ‘Instagram’ face.

I’m not saying they are thriving on the insecurities of a younger generation who are looking for role models in this social media-obsessed age but the pressure to look a certain way is extremely strong - even for women in their 30s and 40s, who are constantly bombarded with these beauty ‘ideals’ on social media.

I interview many aesthetic doctors and plastic surgeons for articles and they tell me their clientele age is getting younger and younger each year. I will never forget interviewing a Harley Street plastic surgeon a few years ago who said girls as young as 18 would come into his clinic with screen grabs of the Kardashians’ Instagram account asking for filler and Botox placement much like their idols. (Of course, this very reputable doctor denied their requests.) Twenty years ago we would rip out pictures in magazines of celebrity hairstyles to emulate - now it’s social media screenshots for injectables.

I get it; the ‘pressure’ of social media gets tossed around frequently but there is a very strong pressure in the younger beauty community to look a certain way. And Kim’s Jessica Rabbit figure and fluttery lashes have sadly added to a sense of unattainable beauty idealism. Particularly for girls in their late teens, who then turn to their iPhone skills to filter themselves a more polished existence.

Earlier this month Kim Kardashian trademarked a brand name for skincare, which is rumoured to be launching in 2021. The Kardashian-Jenner clan are amongst the world’s most influential beauty voices, and whatever they produce is bound to sell like hotcakes. What I would love is a range of skincare that promotes beauty in all its facets - spots and all - which I bet are skin conditions common amongst Kim’s core demographic.

I don’t think Kim is a bad beauty role model - but she has carved out a very specific, glamorous ‘look’ which just happens to have captured the attention of millions of young women around the world. But is it an unattainable beauty ideal, that often leads to insecurities? Absolutely. Kim has an extremely powerful beauty voice, and I would love for her to use it responsibly.