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[00:00:00]

Join 100 plus to listen to even the rich ad free in the thundery app, download the Wonder App in your Apple or Google Play mobile app store today. A quick heads up. We do swear in this episode. There's also a graphic description of a robbery that some may find upsetting.

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It's nearly three a.m. on October 3rd, 2016. It's Fashion Week in Paris, France, but for Kim Kardashian West, it's Christmas. Every top fashion house in the city is showing off their newest designs. And most avant garde creations are the joys of Christmas morning.

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Totally.

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But instead of unwrapping presents and sipping hot cocoa, Kim's loading up her bags with Chanel, Balma and Givenchy.

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Fashion Week is Kim's favorite time of the year, but running from show to show and fitting to feting is exhausting. Now, Kim is finally back in her hotel penthouse after a long day. She's thrilled to swap her designer duds for a big, fluffy white robe.

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But you know, Kim, she's always working on something. So Kim picks up her phone and starts scrolling through her Instagram account. Looking back at all the events she's attended since she landed in the city, there's been so much to post about and she has to make sure that her photo makes the fashion she's wearing really, Pop.

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Kim stops at a photo of herself wearing a beige Balenciaga trench coat and leather boots that run all the way up her legs.

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Right behind her is a serious looking buff man. She smiles at the caption that reads, This guy is always in my shot. Who's the dude? Is it Buff Kanye? No, it's actually her bodyguard. He's always in her shot because he's always by her side.

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But Kim Skrull somewhere more then stops at a selfie showing off her 20 carat diamond engagement ring. The caption for this photo is simple. Just three diamond emojis, OK?

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They need to make quarter diamond emojis for us peasant folks.

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Yeah, or cubic zirconia. Kim Close's Instagram, she's exhausted and she's had enough social media for five lifetimes. She glances at the lock screen of her phone.

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It's a picture of her family, Kanye and her two kids, North and State, seeing them relax. It's her. She can't wait to get home tomorrow and hug them.

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As she moves to put her phone down, Kim hears a rustle in the silence.

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Her body tenses up. She listens closely, then calls out Hello, but nobody answers. And right then Kim has a gut feeling that something is wrong.

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The door to her room flies open and Kim sees three men. The first is the hotel's concierge. His hands are tied with duct tape and he's holding the key to her room. The other two men are thieves. One is wearing ski goggles and the other is in a ski mask. He's also wearing a hat and jacket that says police, but it's the gun in his hand that catches her eye. Oh, shit.

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Kim reaches for her phone to call her bodyguard, but it falls from her grasp as the masked men yank her from her bed. Hang on.

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Where the hell is he? You just said her bodyguards always by her side. Well, since Kim was just planning to go to bed, she sent him to protect Kourtney and Kendall while they hit the town. So she's all alone. My heart is beating so fast right now. This is not OK. I know. It's really scary. She begins pleading with the robbers. I have babies. I have a family. Don't kill me. I can't.

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Even on the night stand is the twenty carat, four million dollar ring that's been all over her Instagram. One of the men picks it up and smiles. He grabs the other jewelry that's lying nearby to diamond Cartier bracelets, a golden diamond, Jacob necklace, Lorraine Schwartz, diamond earrings, a gold Rolex and more.

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The total value is about five million dollars, and Kim's posted nearly all of them online. She left the crumbs all these men had to do was follow the trail. If Kim makes it out alive, she'll have to ask herself some hard questions about putting her entire life online.

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In this moment. She take back every post if she could, but it's too late for that right now. She can only pray that she survives the night. Looking for a nutritious and delicious snack the whole family will love? Well, look no further than our sponsor perfect snacks. What their lineup of fresh from the fridge, protein snacks, perfect snacks has you covered. Listen, when we say delicious, we're not kidding around here. Their protein bars have like a cookie dough texture that's creamy and full of flavor.

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From. I'm Brooke friend, and I'm Erica Skidmore Williams, and this is Even The Rich. In our last episode, we went deep on Kim Kardashians rise to fame. She went from the cover of Playboy to the cover of Vogue and Seven Short Years and claimed her spot among the fashion elite. Now, Kim's youngest sister, Kylie, is about to use social media to make more money than anyone in her family has even dreamed of. But all that wealth will come with a price tag she's not sure she's willing to pay.

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This is episode three, Social Climbing Shack.

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How would you feel if your family landed a TV show when you were a tween? I'd refused to do any more living room family concerts, that's for sure. Thank you. Thank God. Well, Kylie Jenner did end up on television as a teenager, and she didn't have any real say in the matter as the youngest of the Kardashian Jenner clan. She doesn't have a choice but to go along for the ride.

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She'll have to go through all the awkwardness of having her tween and teen years on camera and not just on camera, but on a show that stars Kim Kardashian, the woman who's single handedly changing what women around the world want to look like. Suddenly, everyone wants a small waist, big butt, tan skin and big lips. For most of us, it's an unrealistic standard, but we don't have to grow up right next to it.

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Yeah, honestly, that sounds like hell. Yeah, agreed. But it's not all bad because over the next eight years, Kylie is going to turn her role on keeping up into a business empire. Wait, how does a nine year old start building an empire while keeping up serves as her foundation?

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13 million people tuned into the show within the first month.

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By the time she and her sister Kendall are tweens, they're posing for Seventeen magazine and landing endorsement deals. By the time they're teens, they're launching fashion lines with Parkson and Topshop. But while the Kendall and Kylie brand is growing, Kylie is also spending a lot of time online. She makes mood boards on Tumblr and signs up for a new app called Instagram. She's only 14 when she posts her first pic. I'm sure it's some amazing trendsetting photo. OK, don't get ahead of yourself.

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Becoming a trendsetter doesn't happen overnight.

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Her first post is a photo of a fireplace. OK, she's starting out with a more artsy approach.

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I mean, it is framed really nicely, but really it's just a fireplace. Look, we all got to start somewhere and people aren't really sure what to post or do on Instagram yet. It's so new. But Kylie is not giving up. She's going to figure it out as she goes.

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And eventually she finds her stride. She starts posting selfies and photos of her family and her friends.

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She loves to experiment with her looks, so she posts about that, too. There's close up shots of her ever changing manicures. One week they're glittery, the next they're orange.

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And she plays around with her hair color and starts experimenting with wigs. One week her hair is curly. The next it's dyed pink, then ombre with bangs, no bangs swept to the side and people really start responding to her posts. She starts rapidly gaining followers.

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A Kylie is just being herself, so she doesn't immediately realize just how many people are taking notice of her.

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It's May 2014, 16 year old Kylie is at the Billboard Music Awards. She's there to support her sister, Kendall, who's a presenter. Kylie is wearing a knee-length white dress with spaghetti straps and a diamond and sapphire choker. But it's not her clothes that are getting the attention tonight. I just I was doing shock for a couple of weeks. I could feel shock because I wasn't, like, brave enough to finally do it. And then I just one day I was just like, I'm going blue.

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Kylie has cut her hair into a choppy bob and died blue. Oh, love a fun hairstyle. And what's really cool is that she's inspired other people to go out and cut their hair and die of blue, just like she did.

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According to Kylie. That's the night she realizes how much reach she has with her ever changing style. In fact, there are a whole fan communities full of people who want to look like her.

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They want to know what her next style move will be so they can run out and copy it. Kylie is a legitimate trendsetter. Anything she likes is guaranteed to become the next hottest craze. And just one year she's gone from 12 million followers on Instagram to 40 million.

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She's now nipping at the heels of her most famous sister, Kim, who has fifty five million. But Kim is thirty two and Kylie is just 17.

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Oh, and she's the most viewed person on Snapchat. Bowed down bitches. Yeah, they don't call her King Kylie for nothing.

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So when Kylie makes her next big booty change, her fans want all the details.

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But for the first time, Kylie isn't comfortable sharing them, given how she's grown up.

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It's kind of amazing that Kylie's as confident as she is, but her confidence has cracks. And there's one feature she's especially insecure about. It all starts when she kisses a boy and he tells her he didn't expect someone with such small lips to be a good kisser. Oh, yeah.

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The comment sends her into a bit of a spiral. She starts buying a ton of lip liners and watching YouTube make up tutorials. She learns how to overline her lips, which makes them look plumper. But that's not enough. Like I said, Kylie is obsessing over this. And then overnight, her lips become noticeably more full. Her 40 million followers definitely notice and they want answers, but she doesn't comment on it. You mean her lips are sealed?

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I do, yes. Even though she usually shares everything, this feels more personal. She doesn't want people talking about it. But unfortunately, that's not how being famous works. The media goes after her. They're relentless. They keep trying to get her to open up about the injections. In interview after interview, they try to catch her in a lie. It's awkward and exhausting, but in the middle of this media frenzy, Kylie starts to see an opportunity.

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She's watched her sisters make money off their insecurities. They've turned the tables on what makes them uncomfortable and capitalized on it. Take Chloe, for example. For years, the tabloids mock her as the fat sister.

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That still makes my blood boil. Same people can be really mean, but Khloe takes that negativity and uses it to make a fortune. She steps up her workout routine and writes a New York Times bestseller called Strong Looks Better Naked. She even goes on to have a hit show called Revenge Body with Khloe Kardashian. Oh, my gosh.

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I actually applied for that show. Oh, my God, I forgot about that. Why didn't you do it? They wanted me to just talk about my ex and like, how upset I was about him. And all I wanted was the free workout and meal plan. Yeah, you could have just gone on YouTube, but. OK, well, Khloe takes back control of her narrative by shaping it into a brand. Now she's making bank and Kylie wants to do the same thing.

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It's eight fifty five a.m. on November 30th. Twenty fifteen eighteen year old Kylie Jenner sits at her dining room table nervously twirling her hair. It's now a striking shade of green. Her close laptop sits in front of her and for the first time in her life, she's scared to open it. She's five minutes away from launching her own makeup line. Over the past year, her lips have gotten more press than most A-list celebrities. Now she's hoping to direct some of that attention to the lipsticks she's created to go on them.

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She's developed three lipsticks for her first launch, along with three matching lip liners.

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She's selling them as sets and she's calling them lip kits by Kylie.

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Technically, this isn't Kylie's first foray into the beauty industry. She sold hair extensions under Kylie Haircutter.

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But this time the business doesn't just have her name. It also has her money, inventory, branding, distribution. She paid for all of it out of her own pocket at the lip kits don't sell. Her savings will take a beating, but if the lip kids do well, she'll make a killing and she'll get all the profits. Unlike her hair extensions, she's selling her lip kits directly to her fans. She isn't even paying for marketing. Damn, that seems risky.

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Why would she do that while? Because Kylie's banking on herself, she has more reach at the tip of her fingers than the biggest marketing firms in the world. For months, she's been teasing the launch on Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, just giving her fans a little taste of what she's working on.

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Always careful not to reveal too much. And now Kylie has one last post to publish before the Lipshitz go live. It's a close up of her hand with three lipstick swatches. They're all different shades of nudes. From a muted move to Brown. She posts the pictures and drop the link to her website. So buying a kit is one easy click away.

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Kylie takes a deep breath and opens her laptop. She types in lip, can't buy Kylie Dotcom.

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The page loads. Her sales dashboard is at the top.

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This is it. It's time to see if her social media blitz was enough to launch her business. Nine a.m. strikes, the site, goes live, and before Kyly can even refresh the page, the lip kids sell out. Four hundred thousand dollars worth of lipstick gone in less than 60 seconds. Kyly bet on herself and she won. This is the final confirmation that she can build a business on the back of her digital presence. Social media is all she needs, but Kylie is still learning that overexposure has its pitfalls, too.

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And for one member of the Kardashian family, the potential downsides of social media are about to become a lot more literal. Orisha, you know what's never left my brain since I heard it, that driver's license song, that, too, but also that Mariah Carey sleeps 15 hours a night and keeps like 20 humidifiers going while she sleeps. I mean, of course she does. She's got to take care of those pipes. Yeah, definitely true. Now, you and I might not be able to get the full 15 hours Mariah is getting, but we do sleep really well thanks to our incredible mattresses from Ohara.

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That's right. Sleep better knowing you just planted a small forest. Go to Awuah, asleep, dotcom, even the rich, and this incredible offer will be automatically applied at checkout. That's Awista are a sleep dotcom. Even the rich. No, no. It's October twenty sixteen, two days after Kim's robbery in Paris, after the nightmare of that evening, Kim fled the city and she's been holed up in her Manhattan apartment with Kanye ever since. She's hired 30 bodyguards to the tune of fifty thousand dollars a day, but she still doesn't feel safe.

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She can't eat. She can't sleep.

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Every sound makes her jump. Her phone keeps buzzing with incoming messages from friends and family. Are you OK?

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I just heard the news. She spends her days calling and texting them back and ignoring the rumors that are piling up online.

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The going theory is that she staged the robbery herself. What?

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Yeah, a lot of people just aren't buying that. Something so dramatic was actually real.

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People are tweeting.

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I wouldn't be surprised if Kim Kardashian paid someone to rob her as a publicity stunt or Kim Kardashian probably set up this gunpoint story.

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These people will do anything for ratings and money.

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Wow. The runaway train of social media. And just to be clear, she definitely did not fake the attack like the French police launch a huge investigation into the robbery. It was definitely a real thing, but it does seem like the robbers knew where Kim was and what jewelry she had on her because of social media while she was in Paris.

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She posted about her every move the night she was robbed. She'd even posted that she was staying in while everyone else was going out. Now, holed up in New York, Kim has a choice to make. She's one of the most followed people on social media. She's stayed on top by giving her fans an all access pass into her life. But that's also what put a target on her back. Every post now feels like a gamble. On the one hand, social media is her moneymaker.

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She can make up to half a million with a sponsored post.

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And every time she posts a selfie, she scores about twenty thousand dollars worth of free advertising for her own personal brand.

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Wow. Every time I post a selfie, my personal brand loses twenty dollars.

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But every post also broadcast where she is and exactly how much she has on her and clothing and jewelry, because the same qualities that make her posts so attention grabbing now put her at risk. Yeah. So then what does she do while she does the unthinkable, she pulls up the drawbridge, her accounts on Instagram and Twitter and Snapchat go dark. Kim usually posts multiple times a week to Instagram, multiple times a day on Snapchat and Twitter. But for three months, nothing, no pouting, selfies, no videos with flower crowd filters.

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Kim is losing millions. She's also skipping public appearances and taking a break from keeping up.

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But her absence also creates an opportunity for the second most followed Kardashian Jenner on social media. Kylie Kristin Jenner, the one and only the last time we saw her. Kylie was selling out her lip kits and making nearly half a million in a minute. But now she's ready to go even bigger. She changes the name of her company from lip kits by Kylie to Kylie Cosmetics, because now she isn't just selling lipsticks anymore. She's selling eyeshadows liner's brushes and pretty much everything she puts online sells out.

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In 2016 alone, Kylie Cosmetics brings in over three hundred million dollars. Hot damn. Yeah.

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At nineteen, she's nailed the formula for perfectly matte lipstick and fame and fortune. But just when you think Kylie can't get any bigger, she lands her own keeping up spin. It's called Life of Kylie. She's going to give her fans customers a backstage pass to her life as a teenage multimillionaire.

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OK, I don't know whether to love her or hate her. Oh, my God. I know. When I was 19, I was living in a makeshift third bedroom and using a curtain as a door. Kylie is living in a thirteen thousand square foot mansion with her best friend, Jordan Woods. Her hair and beauty team follows her everywhere as she jet sets around the world and she buys luxury cars more casually than I buy live kids. Yeah, but her kids are so good.

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Oh, my gosh. I know I'm actually wearing Coco right now, but I'd still prefer a Bentley anyway. Her show follows her life as a GenZE. Darling, people who are Kim's age don't really pay much attention to Kylie, but to her fellow teenagers. Kylie is king. Thousands of them write to her every day. And the most common request seems to be get this asking her to prom. Yeah, because what celebrity doesn't want to go to a high school prom?

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Yes, seriously. On the first episode of Life of Kylie, a mom asks Kylie to prom on behalf of her son, Albert. He's being bullied for not having a prom date. Mom, I know.

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And Kylie says yes, she relates to Albert. His dad left when he was really young. And since then, he never really had a chance to be a kid in her own way. Kylie knows what that's like. She spent her own teen years working 24/7, shooting, keeping up, designing clothing collections, doing whatever ad campaigns her mom put in place for her. She was missing so much school and falling behind in her classes at 15, she leaves traditional school behind and starts home schooling, but that can be really lonely.

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Every time she check her socials, she saw pictures of football games, homecoming, prom, so she could either keep being reminded of all the stuff she's missing out on or on. Follow her friends.

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Kylie considers and then clicks unfollow. Wow. So even influencers get Fumo. Yeah, apparently.

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But those days are behind her. She's King Kylie now. She can do whatever the fuck she wants, including going to prom. So Kylie sets an elaborate plan in motion. She tricks Alber into thinking he's won a free tuxedo rental and then flies to Sacramento and shows up in his dressing room. Oh my God. Can you even imagine? No idea. How does he react? He's so nervous he can barely get a word out. But in the limo ride over, Kylie tries to get him to relax.

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She imagines what their night will be like. They'll arrive at the dance and then all the kids who've bullied Albert will want to talk to her.

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But Kylie will ignore everyone and just say, sorry, I'm with my date right now. This is sounding very teen movie and I love it. Like she's going to be the popular kid who's going to make this uncool kid popular by going to prom with him. Totally. But when they enter the prom, it's nothing like that. They don't get a chance to talk to anyone. The moment she spotted the room breaks out into total pandemonium. You can see Kylie's excitement turn into panic, but she tries to keep her game face on.

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Their group retreats to an elevator and they're whisked up to a private balcony. They spend the rest of the evening 50 feet above the party, ringed by bodyguards below. Everyone stop dancing. They're all just standing still, pointing their camera phones at Kylie. And Kaylee's looking down at them once again, watching from from a distance.

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OK, that's kind of heartbreaking. Yeah. Later in that same episode, her friend Jordan takes her to the beach to give her another shot at being normal. Kylie hasn't been to the beach in years because it's always so crowded. But Jordan has taken her at midnight when it's finally empty. They hold hands as they walk along the sand. And Kylie keeps repeating, people just walk on the beach like this with the sound of the waves crashing on the shore and the feeling of sand under her shoes, Kylie starts pouring her heart out.

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She tells Jordan that she's getting the bug again, that feeling that she just wants to run away. Some people she knows, like Kendall and her model friends, are naturals at being on camera, but that's not her. Every time there's paparazzi, she covers her face. She wishes she could figure out who she is off camera.

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OK, but what's stopping her? I mean, she has all the money in the world at this point, right? She does. But she's created a business that can't exist without her. If she isn't constantly posting selfies, her business model falls apart. She's at the top of the world, but she's up there running on a little treadmill. And if she misses a step, she's going to fall off the edge. A couple of weeks later, she gets her wish, kind of.

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She goes off line. Hell, no. Those lips won't photograph themselves, but she does kind of run away. OK, explain. OK, well, right after her first and last ever prom, she levels up to a very different party scene.

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It's 2017, and Kylie slaps on her VIP bracelet and drives to the California desert to see Lady Gaga, Radiohead and Kendrick Lamar at Coachella, and while she's there, she meets up with another headliner, chart topping rapper Travis Scott. And they have instant chemistry or is it just their paycheck seeing each other across the room? Hey there. I mean, it seems to be the real deal. All week long, fans post photos of the two stars wandering Coachella, holding hands.

[00:26:21]

But other than these unsolicited shots, Kylie's incredibly private about the relationship. She doesn't let the life of Kylie cameras anywhere near them. She eventually gives GQ an interview about how their week in Coachella ended. Do you want to read the quote? Hell, yeah.

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Coachella was one of the stops on his tour, so he said, I'm going back on tour. What do we want to do about this? Because we obviously liked each other. And I was like, I guess I'm going with you. OK, that's romantic. Yeah, it is.

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Kylie describes it as them riding off into the sunset. Together, they go to random cities on his tour. And when he's not performing, they just take long walks together. They're not in L.A. or New York.

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So the paps aren't following them. People don't even recognize them. They can just relax and be together for as Kylie puts it in that GQ interview, we weren't going out as Kylie and Trev. We got to not be who we really were. Weird grammar, but I got it. I mean, they don't have to worry about being celebrities. They can just be normal for a change. Yeah, exactly. And she hasn't dropped off the grid. She's still posting online, but she's living as many moments as she can outside of the spotlight.

[00:27:33]

But then everything changes and she has to make a decision that reminds her just how not normal her life is. Here's how Jordan and Kylie's assistant, Victoria, describe that life changing moment.

[00:27:45]

We're sitting in the USA on the top of the counter. And then how does she say hello?

[00:27:51]

And then she passes to me after, like a surprise.

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Are they talking about what I think they're talking about? Yep. Just a month after she starts dating Travis, Kylie is pregnant. Is she freaking out? No. Even though she's only 19, she actually loves the idea. According to her friends, she's always wanted to have kids. The only question is, how long can she keep it a secret? The moment she tells the world she'll be back in the spotlight.

[00:28:18]

Pregnancies are keeping ups biggest story engine. She'll be the centerpiece of the next season and the tabloids will have a field day.

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But hiding the pregnancy will be equally extreme. She'll have to evade the paps and live her life off camera.

[00:28:32]

She'll have to risk losing her followers, her business, everything she's been working towards.

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It's the same decision Kim faced after the robbery.

[00:28:40]

But while Kim ultimately took three months off, Kylie would have to stay offline for at least twice as long she has to choose.

[00:28:47]

Does she keep running on her little treadmill on the top of the world or does she just let herself fall off? This episode is brought to you by our friends at CarMax, learn more about the new love your car guarantee from CarMax at CarMax Dotcom. I'm interested in this.

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Yes, it's literally so addictive that as soon as you finish one episode, you immediately need to see the next one. From the executive producer of The Undoing and Big Little Lies comes the Amazon original series Tell Me Your Secrets, available now on Amazon Prime video.

[00:30:34]

Stay tuned for more on this binge worthy series later in the podcast. La, la, la, la, la. It's 2017, and Kylie has a huge decision to make should she share her pregnancy with the world or keep it private? In the end, Kylie opts to keep this special time between herself and her immediate circle of family and friends.

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But how does someone with millions of followers, hundreds of paparazzi trailing her and two reality shows actually do that?

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Well, Kylie has to figure it out. She knows it's going to take a lot of planning and a lot of work. She can't just tell her followers she's taking a nine month vacation to Bora Bora CEO when I get back. And she can't just ask the paparazzi to shoot her from the neck up or just photograph her shoes.

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True. But even with those obstacles standing in her way, Kylie's determined to take a hiatus from the world. First, Kylie needs to keep her social media active while she's away. She knows she can't keep posting pictures of herself in bikinis and tight clothes for much longer. So she has to get creative and fast because a pregnant belly waits for no one.

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Suddenly, Kylie is all over social media and oversized t shirts and huge sweatpants. Remember, she's a trendsetter, so maybe she's just taking a new look out for a spin. Eagle eyed fans notice that the only racy pictures she posts are throwbacks. Anything showing her body is artfully cropped Bible. Some of my best photos are artfully cropped. Yes, same. But people start to speculate that something's up.

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This isn't the Kylie they know. And of course, by no, I mean follow on Instagram. Her fans get even more suspicious when Kylie stops going out altogether. She goes from sitting courtside with Travis at NBA games to basically becoming a recluse. But this is her way of avoiding the paparazzi. She figures they can't get a shot of her in her own house, and she makes sure of that by staying far away from windows. She even skips out on the annual Kardashian Christmas card.

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Oh, my God, this is a case for the FBI. The whole thing blows up online. It's hashtag, where's Kylie? After Kim post the Christmas card to her social media. All anyone wants to talk about is why Kylie isn't there. And then there's the show. Kylie is missing from the entire 14th season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. She's never on screen. And it's extra obvious because the show isn't doing that great. In fact, the ratings are in freefall by the end of twenty sixteen, ratings have dropped to under a million viewers an episode for the first time since the show began.

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And they just keep tumbling, which means big trouble for their brands and endorsements. Their TV show gets them followers and their followers mean more product sales. In other words, if the show fails, there could be ripple effects into all their other businesses. An empire could fall.

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Yeah, putting a juicy story like Kylie's pregnancy at the center of the season would certainly bring some eyeballs back to the show. At this point, Kylie is probably the most talked about member of the family. She's only 19 and she's pregnant. Within weeks of dating Travis, people would definitely tune in to see how it all plays out. But even with their show at stake, Kylie sticks to her guns. She's keeping her pregnancy private.

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And while she's out of the spotlight, the rumor mill goes wild. Mostly is just speculation that she's eating for two. I mean, you look at the baggy clothes, the cropped photos, it's not a huge leap. But then conspiracy theories start popping up.

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What, like Chris? Sacrifice Kylie to the Illuminati God clothes.

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People think that Kris Jenner masterminded Kylie's pregnancy, that she planned the whole thing because right around the same time, both Chloe and Kim are also expecting new additions. A few gossip sites claim that Kris has been trying to get three daughters pregnant at the same time for years now. All is a juicy storyline for keeping up OK, except Kylie is not even appearing on the show. Yeah, I never said the theory made sense.

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But in their minds, Kris Jenner is only focused on ratings, fame and money.

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But she actually respects her daughter's decision. Even when Kylie completely drops off the grid for a few weeks on Christmas Day, Kylie post a photo of herself on the cover of Love magazine. But after that, it's crickets for the whole month of January. And then on February 1st, Kylie gives birth. Three days later, Kiley finally returns to Instagram and she shares a short note with her fans explaining her absence. Are you sure you want to read some of it?

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I understand you're used to me bringing you along on all my journeys. My pregnancy was when I chose not to do in front of the world. I knew for myself I needed to prepare for this role of a lifetime in the most positive, stress free and healthy way.

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I knew how. There was no gotcha moment, no big paid reveal I had planned. I knew my baby would feel every stress and every emotion. So I chose to do it this way for my little life and our happiness. Wow, so she really chose herself for one's big time, and now that she's had nine months of privacy, she's ready to let her fans back in. Later that day, Kylie shares a beautiful video to a YouTube channel titled For Our Daughter.

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The clip starts with footage of Chris giving birth to Kylie. Then Kylie's friends share their memories about how they found out about the pregnancy. And they offer sweet and loving advice to Kylie and the baby. But it gets even more intimate when we see doctors appointments, ultrasounds, the baby's heartbeat and just how excited Kylie and Travis are about their unborn baby. They're totally in love with someone they haven't even met yet. Together, they put away these tiny, adorable Nike sneakers and a walk in closet that's filled with baby clothes.

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And the video ends with Kylie in the maternity ward.

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Has a six, seven, eight your. And with that, she introduces the world to her daughter, Stormy Webster. Oh, that sounds so sweet. It really is.

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And her fans go crazy over it. Twenty five million people go to her YouTube channel to watch the video in the first 24 hours. Two days later, Kylie posts a picture confirming her baby's name and it becomes the most liked picture in Instagram history. There's a huge public appetite for news about her baby, and Kylie gets to control the entire story from start to finish. OK, that is a power move if I've ever seen one. Yeah, and none of it gets featured on their show.

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In fact, Keeping Up only airs one episode about Kylie's pregnancy in season 15. And sure enough, Season 15 ends with the lowest ratings in the show's history. But online, at least for Kylie, it's a very different story.

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Despite her absence, Kylie's more popular online than ever. The mystery around her pregnancy bumped her Instagram following to over 100 million. The dirty little secret is that Kylie doesn't really need the show anymore. In fact, her reach is so powerful that a single tweet rocks the stock market. Don't tell GameStop.

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Well, luckily, GameStop is fine this time, but Kylie's not really digging Snapchat. A recent redesign, she tweets. So does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore or is it just me? Oh, this is so sad. That day, Snapchat stock craters and it loses one point three billion dollars in value.

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Kylie is so influential her wims move the markets and eventually movers and shakers in the business world start to take notice.

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It's June twenty eighteen.

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Kylie's makeup artist dabs at her full lips with a light pink gloss from Kylie's own collection. A hair stylist sweeps a stray hair back into her sleek bun. She's been doing fashion shoots since she was a child.

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But right now she's about to do a cover shoot. That means more than all of the others combined. It could be the one that determines the trajectory of the rest of her career.

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Kylie can feel the nerves rising in her throat with her black leather batons. She steps in front of a gray backdrop and turns ever so slightly to reveal her profile.

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She looks straight down the lens, tilting her head out to give her jawline even more definition. Muscle memory kicks in. She knows how to do this. The photographer says, All right, I think we got it. Kylie steps off to the side and shakes out her nerves. This part is over, but the real drama is about to begin.

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That's because Kylie is about to be recognized by America's business Bible as a very, very successful businesswoman. This shoot is for the cover of Forbes.

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The Forbes cover story estimates Kaylee's net worth at around nine hundred million dollars, all thanks to Kylie Cosmetics. It's a crowning moment for Kylie, or at least it should be.

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According to Forbes, the youngest member of the Kardashian Jenner clan is on track to become the world's youngest self-made billionaire. But when the magazine comes out, people are like self-made, not going to lie. I definitely bumped on that, too. Yeah, so did I. I mean, she was born into wealth and she's been famous since she was nine years old. The backlash is massive. People think it's a slap in the face to everyone who didn't have family wealth to fall back on.

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A comedian who goes by the name of the fat Jewish even launches a satirical Go Fund Me campaign in Kylie's name to take her across the finish line. He writes, I don't want to live in a world where Kylie Jenner doesn't have a billion dollars.

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For her part, Kylie stays quiet. She just shares the cover with the caption, Thank you, Forbes, for this article and the recognition. I'm so blessed to do what I love every day.

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Hashtag Kylie Cosmetics. If Kylie's learned anything from her sisters, it's how to use a backlash to keep moving forward. The digital story accompanying the cover becomes the most trafficked story of all time on Forbes website and Kylie cosmetics sales keep climbing. But as much as the Kardashians have changed the cultural landscape, that landscape is also changing without them. And the family is about to come face to face with a backlash they can't control. This is episode three of our four part series, The Kardashians, if you like our show, please give us a five star rating and a review and be sure to tell your friends subscribe on Apple podcast, Amazon Music, The Wonder App or wherever you're listening right now, join Wonder E-Plus and the Wonder App to listen ad free.

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You'll also find some links and offers from our sponsors in the episode notes. Please support them by supporting them. You help us offer you this show for free. Another way you can support the show is by filling out a small survey at one Tricon survey. We use many sources when researching our stories, including the Virge Box, People magazine, Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Life of Kylie. I'm Brooke Saffron. And I'm Erica Skidmore Williams. Natalie Robinett wrote this episode, editing by Allison Rimer.

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Our producer is Natalie Sheesha. Our associate producer is Kate Young. Our audio engineer is Sergio Enriquez. Sound design is by James Morgan. Our executive producer is our Stephanie Jones. Jenny Lour Borkman and martialing. We are wondering what. So, Erica, if there's one thing we've learned doing our show, it's that celebrities really are just like us in one way.

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They all have secrets.

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Yeah, like that time it came out that a certain celebrity couple were vials of each other's blood around their necks.

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I mean, celebrities really do know their way around romance and trends.

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Jewelry sales skyrocketed. But I'm curious, do you have any good secrets that. I don't know.

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I mean, OK, I used to autograph books as their authors and goodwill stores. Does that count?

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So you'd go into the store and write autographs in the book?

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Yes. Yeah. Anybody listening? There you go.

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Anybody listening? That doesn't look legit. You're not going to get much for it on eBay.

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I'm sorry, but I think you and I both love secrets that are a little dark.

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Oh, yeah. And that's why we're so excited about the new Amazon original series. Tell me your secrets. Tell me your secrets. Stars Lilly Rob, Amy Brenneman and Hamish Linklater as a trio of characters, each with a mysterious and troubling past. Talk about a stacked cast. Yeah, definitely. OK, so John, played by Linklater, is a former serial predator desperate to find redemption. Mary, played by Brennaman, is a mother who is searching for her daughter.

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And Emma, played by Rob, is the woman who may be responsible for her disappearance. Tell Me Your Secrets is a dark roller coaster ride full of murderous twists and turns that will leave you wondering who was the victim and who is the villain.

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Watch the new Amazon original series. Tell Me Your Secrets available now on Amazon Prime video. You do not want to miss this show.

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And stay tuned right now to hear a trailer to make this film. She was taken. I know. My boyfriend killed nine women. The police stopped, I helped him. Did you sometimes I get these flashes. I don't know if you daymares. I mean, help me find this monster before she destroys someone else's life. What are you going to do when I find her? As you know, something is happening here. Two girls are dead who?

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I know what you did. They're looking for and we better find her first. Is there something you're not telling me?

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There are so many things. Take time to say good bye. Watch the new Amazon original series, Tell Me Your Secrets. Available now on Amazon Prime video.