IS SHE OR ISN'T SHE?

At This Point, Reports About Kylie Jenner’s Possible Engagement Border on Fan Fiction

It’s time to stop projecting our own narratives onto her.


London Celebrity Sightings -  July 03, 2017
Ricky Vigil M/GC Images

As history has shown, speculating is a futile activity when it comes to the Kardashians. Kylie Jenner knows this, as the youngest member has grown up in a universe where truly breaking family news is solely reserved for their reality show Keeping Up With the Kardashians. But that doesn’t stop her from keeping her followers in a holding pattern on social media, as she toys with the rumors that concern her and, even, provokes an onslaught of new ones. The latest? Kylie Jenner may be engaged to her boyfriend Travis Scott.

This weekend, while Kardashian-Jenner social media posts were focused on Kim Kardashian‘s third baby shower for her first child that will be brought into this world by a surrogate, Kylie posted a video to Snapchat of herself at the wheel, driving to Kim and Kanye’s recently sold Bel Air home.

As innocuous as the video sounds, it became a focal point for the internet thanks to a gigantic diamond she casually showed off on her ring finger. Rumors of her engagement swirled with no confirmation to follow from Kylie or any other Kardashian-Jenner.

So what do we know? Absolutely nothing, other than the fact that Kylie enjoys diamond rings—especially on her ring finger—as this isn’t the first time she’s worn one that has prompted rumors. Recall in July of 2016, Kylie was rumored to be engaged to Tyga after a similarly shiny ring was seen on her ring finger. She later revealed that it was just a promise ring though. Could her new ring also be a promise ring? Maybe! Could it be an engagement ring? Maybe!

These days, reports about Kylie’s life seem to veer more on fan fiction than actual facts. We still don’t know if she’s actually pregnant. That hasn’t stopped speculation that she just threw herself a baby shower, though as People reported that one went down at her Hidden Hills home on Sunday, a day after Kim’s, and was intentionally undocumented on social media. “Even though this is a very exciting time for her, she wants to be more private for now and is doing her best to stay out of the public eye,” a source told People.

Whether or not Kylie is pregnant or engaged, or whether or not she just likes to wear baggy clothing and diamond rings, there is no point in projecting our own narratives onto the 20-year-old. As her TV series The Life of Kylie showed, the only person who actually knows what’s happening inside of it is Kylie. And no level of thirst will change that.

A Celebration of Kylie Jenner’s 20 Years of Not Letting the Critics Get Her Down

In 2011, Tyga and Kylie first met at Kendall Jenner’s Sweet Sixteen, where the rapper performed. Kylie was 14 at the time. Three years later, Tyga ended his engagement with Blac Chyna, the mother of his son King Cairo—and shortly after, began appearing on Kylie’s Instagram, prompting rumors they were dating. Both Kylie and Tyga denied the relationship—though it was the subject of a line in Drake’s “6 p.m. in New York” and the topic of some scathing words from Amber Rose—until the following year, when Kanye West let slip on The Breakfast Club. The gist of the controversy: Kylie and Tyga’s wide age gap, and the appearance that he left Blac Chyna for a teenager.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

After Kylie launched Kylie Cosmetics with her eponymous lip kits, some beauty bloggers noted distinct similarities to ColourPop’s far more affordable range; parent company Seed Cosmetics later confirmed it manufactured both ColourPop and Kylie Cosmetics.

@kyliejenner

Kylie Cosmetics has been at the center of many of its founder’s controversies over the past two years—both because of the beauty brand itself, and because it has presented Kylie with a massive platform. For the brand’s Holiday 2016 campaign, which debuted in September, it released an image of gold-painted fingers framing a deep, cranberry lip—mirroring almost exactly an image by makeup artist Vlada Haggerty. Haggerty filed a suit against Kylie Cosmetics, but the feud was resolved before any court battle began.

@vladamua

Considering the previous Tyga drama, someone might have advised Kylie that naming one of her new blushes “Barely Legal” might not be the best plan.

@kyliejenner

Earlier this year, Kylie, one of the celebrity faces of Puma (like Rihanna, and like The Weeknd), appeared in a campaign in which she was depicted mid-running stride, in one image, and springing up into the air as if on a trampoline, in another. Just as her sister Kendall before her was criticized for appearing in a ballet-themed Vogue España editorial, Kylie was criticized for ostensibly taking the place of a real athlete in the campaign. Complaints about her running form—her feet not flexed properly, her knees not at the right angle—abounded, and then subsided in time for Kylie to appear in another campaign several months later.

@puma

Just after her brother Rob Kardashian was embroiled in his own controversy with ex-girlfriend Blac Chyna (the same Blac Chyna who was once engaged to Tyga), Kylie tapped her brother, sock entrepreneur and founder of Arthur George, to collaborate with Kylie Cosmetics. Many questioned the timing of the collaboration, as it was unveiled just after Rob had unleashed an Instagram tirade, including several graphic photos (that Chyna had not consented to be released), against his former girlfriend.

Denise Truscello/Getty Images

In the midst of building a beauty empire, Kylie also manages to balance collaborating with her elder sister Kendall on their Kendall + Kylie clothing label. As part of the brand’s most recent drop, the sisters debuted new “vintage” merch, featuring iconic images of the likes of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. with Kendall and Kylie’s own likenesses splashed over the front. The families and estates of the late rappers, as well as other artists featured in the collection, immediately struck back—and the tees were promptly pulled from Kendall + Kylie. (Since then, Kendall + Kylie has been struck by several lawsuits.)

Christopher Polk/NBC/Getty Images
1/7