Young People Tell Us Why They Downloaded the Kylie Jenner App

Once upon a time, Kylie Jenner was the "other Kardashian-Jenner"—the youngest daughter without modeling prospects or the ability to hawk a ghostwritten celebrity novel on her own. But this week, Kylie has eclipsed her sisters—even Kim—with the release of her eponymous website and app. The latter has soared to the top of the Apple App Store chart, past apps from both her sisters and from Facebook. So many people bombarded the app last night, it froze.

For $2.99 a month, the app offers users access to exclusive "content," as Kylie calls it: makeup tutorials, personal playlists, and unreleased photos. Basically, an endless stream of curated personal information of the type that Kylie and her sisters have released daily through Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Twitter, Instagram, and—Kylie and other teens' preferred medium—Snapchat. Yet teens and other young adults have been ambushing the App Store to get ahold of more Kylie, so I asked a few youths why they decided to download the app when they could get more than enough Kylie for free.

"I've only had the free trial," says Georgie Taylor, a British 19-year-old. "I don't really love Kylie; I just like her style, and I think her makeup tutorials would be fun to check out."

Is Kylie your favorite Kardashian-Jenner? I ask.

"I'm not partially into the whole 'who's the best Kardashian' [thing]" she says.

The members of Kylie's obsessive fandom differ from standard fans. Although everyone watches hot messes raptly—a Gawker post about Tori Spelling falling on a hibachi grill received over 50,000 views—people typically only become fanatical celebrity devotees who will spend $2.99 a month on an app when they aspire to actually become the celebrity. (The exception, of course, is gay men, who have stood at the altar of drug-addled stars since the dawn of sodomy.) For years, fashion magazines pushed celebrities and makeup products readers found "aspirational." You may, for example, prefer Kim because she's iconic, Kendall because she's beautiful, Khloe because she's funny, or Kourtney because she's a relatable single mother in an unhealthy on-again, off-again relationship, but people love Kylie because she's a complicated young woman.

"Kylie's presence online is both alarming and sometimes so tragic that I can't look away," says Joelle Hyman, a 23-year-old who downloaded the app. "I just want to watch ten pounds of makeup get slapped on her face and feel bad about myself."

Hyman must look at Kylie's face, because the young celebutante (with her makeup artists) morphs her face into so many different shapes, she forces you to wonder how it happened. Hyman points to the many YouTube tutorials teaching Kylie's techniques, but America's dedication to Kylie goes beyond the superficial. Over the years, Kylie has changed more than any of her sisters. She has transitioned from a young child to an awkward preteen to a vulnerable young woman whose constantly changing appearance mystifies audiences.

Some girls want her life: Tyga, the mansion, and those lips. But most girls want to watch her change. They read about her growing lips, her insecurities about her looks condensed into hundred-word Instagram captions, and her decision to adopt a bunny and name it Bruce after her father who recently transitioned. Kylie may have reinvented celebrity, like her sister Kim and her mentor Paris Hilton before her, but as a public character, she's traditional, a woman going under a huge public change, like an Edith Wharton heroine.

"I don't love Kylie," says 23-year-old Deisy Patino, "yet I follow her on Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. I find her very interesting (not always in a good way), and I want to know what she is up to and doing. I think it's mostly because of her transformation. I think out of all the sisters she is the most interesting and the one that has changed the most since the first episode of the Kardashians aired on E! She is a completely different person, and I think it's interesting to see and follow that."