Dear Kylie Jenner,
When I was fourteen, I took my younger cousin, Brigitte, to my soccer game. She was a toddler who loved to hold hands and cuddle. As I walked towards the bleachers to drop her off with the team moms, my coach approached me and said: “I really hope that isn’t your daughter.”
Stunned and embarrassed, I whispered that she was my cousin.
That was the first time I realized how entrenched stereotypes of Latinas were across ordinary and “liberal” people. That was the first time I realized how the world saw me.
When I was fourteen, I was an inch under five feet, played club soccer, and assumed to be a mother. I didn’t need to look older or look taller, I just needed to be Latina.
Nearly six years later, I am telling you about this experience because you’re not like me. The whole country held their breath and waited to know if you were pregnant. Upon the release of your announcement, the whole country rejoiced too. Twitter almost broke. You made the headlines of multiple news outlets and magazines, the BBC, The Washington Post, and Fox News, to name a few. “To Our Daughter,” not only made the top 10 list of trending videos on Youtube but did so within 8 hours of being released.
People from all corners of the world applauded you and welcomed your daughter. I do too. I am happy that Stormi will never wonder whether there is enough food to eat, have to attend public schools that remain segregated, or be limited by the structural violence that still exists in America.
You are a young mother. At the time that you became pregnant, you had only been with Travis Scott, the father of your daughter, for three months and were 19 years of age. You’re another tally in a statistic that is largely composed of Latinx and black women usually of low-income status. And yet, you were not bashed for it.
Would the country have reacted the same way had a black or Latinx public figure faced similar circumstances? Remembering the nation’s reaction to Malia Obama smoking weed at Lollapalooza drives me to argue that it would not have been the case.
I ask you to recognize your privilege and thus, act on it. Support and uplift the women who although became pregnant at the same age as you will face many consequences that you will not. For example, women who bear a child at a younger age are more likely to not complete high school and live below the poverty line. I challenge you to use your platform and financial stability to encourage and invest in the future and success of women who do not have silk pajama baby showers, who are assumed pregnant at fourteen, who are poorly educated on sex and its risks, and who, most of all, are shortchanged by this nation. Fund daycare centers in universities so young mothers can attend courses. Create a foundation that comprehensively empowers these women by distributing essentials such as prenatals, diapers, or groceries while also building job skills.
Make this world a better place for your daughter. She will thank you.
“WATCH: Kylie Jenner’s Video ‘To Our Daughter’ Enters the Top 10 of YouTube’s Trending Videos in Just 8 Hours.” GMA News Online, 5 Feb. 2018, www.gmanetwork.com/news/hashtag/content/642184/kylie-jenner-rsquo-s-vide….
Toppo, Greg. “GAO Study: Segregation Worsening in U.S. Schools.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 17 May 2016,
www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/17/gao-study-segregation-worsening-u….
Wiltz, Teresa. “Racial and Ethnic Disparities Persist in Teen Pregnancy Rates.” The Pew Charitable Trusts, STATELINE, 3 Mar. 2015, www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2015/3/03/rac….
National Research Council (US) Panel on Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing; Hofferth SL, Hayes CD, editors. Risking the Future: Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing, Volume II: Working Papers and Statistical Appendices. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1987. CHAPTER 6, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF TEENAGE CHILDBEARING. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK219229/