Kendall Jenner, 26, sat down with the podcast host Jay Shetty, 35, on an episode of his show, On Purpose, on Sept. 12 to reveal that she felt “extremely overworked.” The model and KUWTK star told Jay that she was burnt out by the time she was in her early 20s because she had been modeling since she was just 14 years old. “The things that I accomplished, even my job, at one point when I was younger, I decided I wanted to be a model. I didn’t stop until I was 24, then I was like, ‘Okay I think I need to take it back a notch,'” Kendall told the host.
This is not Kendall’s first time opening up about her mental health and anxiety, as it has been a topic of conversation on several episodes of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, and the family’s new Hulu show, The Kardashians. The 26-year-old rose to fame on her family’s iconic reality TV show before she began her modeling career in her teens. “The core five years of it where I was extremely overworked, not my happiest – not because I wasn’t doing what I loved – but just because I was overwhelmed and I felt like I was saying yes to everything because I felt really really grateful and really honored to be in the position that I was in,” she said. “So I was always saying yes and it took a lot out of me to the point where I just wasn’t happy anymore and so I had to set those boundaries for myself when I was about 23/24,” the 818 Tequila founder said.
At the time, Kendall started to reflect on where she wanted to go in her life. She told Jay that she knew she wanted to keep modeling, but that she would have to set boundaries in order to keep going. “I want to continue to do this [modeling] because this is what I love, but I need to start saying no when I can and prioritizing me, my happiness, and well-being,” Kendall said. The Fendi model also shared that since she adopted this new approach to life and work, it has “done wonders” for her.
Jay, who also officiated Jennifer Lopez‘s wedding to Ben Affleck, commended Kendall for her “courage” on being able to set those boundaries for herself. “It’s not an easy space to be, you’re in the top 0.01% in your industry so it’s hard,” Jay said. “To have the courage to say, ‘no, I know that if I sort this out [one’s wellbeing] then all of this [the rest of one’s life] is going to be just fine’, that actually takes my courage than we recognize,” he added.
The day that the interview was released, Kendall also took to her Instagram account to talk about the emotional conversation she had with Jay. She captioned the series of self-care content, “hiii if you’ve watched my interview with @jayshetty then you know what this picture of my younger self pasted on my bathroom mirror is there for :) self love is so important tap into your highest self! sending love.” The content included a child portrait of Kendall, a video of her taking an ice bath, and a clip of her at the beach to name a few.
Kendall is still an in-demand supermodel known for strutting the runway for many iconic designers from Versace to Fendi to Chanel and many more. She even graced the cover of The Pop Mag, which she revealed on her Instagram on Sept. 7. And despite her efforts to take care of her mental health, the cover model shows no sign of slowing down. Just one day prior, she revealed that she was on the cover of W Mag for its 50th anniversary edition. Kendall captioned the post, “honored to be a part of @wmag 50th anniversary issue by @rafaelpavarotti_”