Kendall Jenner has to work harder because of her name

Kendall Jenner, Kylie Jenner, and Hailey Baldwin leaving their hotel in New York City

The 18-year-old model – who has walked for prestigious labels including Chanel and Givenchy – believes her famous family, with whom she stars on the E! reality series ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’, made it more difficult for her to be taken seriously in the industry.

She told Love magazine: “I was like, ‘You know what? I want to be high fashion. I want to be taken seriously.’

“People think that this [success] just came to me. But it didn’t. What I have has almost worked against me. I had to work even harder to get where I wanted because people didn’t take me seriously as a model because of the TV show.

“I went on castings and some people weren’t feeling me because of my name. But it was great when people didn’t recognise me. I was like, ‘Thank you. Please don’t recognise me.'”

The stunning brunette even asked her big sister, Kim Kardashian, not to come to her catwalk shows in a bid to distance herself from the family name.

She explained: “Kim was invited to a lot of the shows that I was in. She called me before and was like, ‘Hey, I was invited to the show, I just wanted to let you know. Do you want me to come?’ and I was like, ‘No.'”

However, Kim, 33, is still proud of her little sister and is grateful to American fashion designer Marc Jacobs for giving her a chance to make it in the industry.

She said: “She had to work extra hard to gain this respect and to fight for people to see she’s serious. Marc Jacobs gave her a real shot and treated her like any other model. He believed in her and opened the door for her.

“Her hard work paid off, and that makes me so proud.”

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