Elle U.K.‘s editor-in-chief Lorraine Candy has Kim Kardashian‘s back.
Candy and her colleagues selected the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star to cover the magazine’s Confidence Issue, though some readers disagreed with the publication’s decision to feature her. In her January 2015 editor’s letter, Candy confronts her critics and explains why Kardashian is the perfect pick.
“For me, confidence is about finding your voice and making it heard,” the editor-in-chief writes. “This is not about shouting louder, or indeed judging those women who feel the need to do so; it’s about finding out how to persuade yourself you can achieve whatever you want to.”
“If you have found other women, it is important you support other women as they find theirs. As we put this Confidence Issue together and news of Kim Kardashian West’s place on its cover was leaked, I noted some people questioning our choice, querying Kim’s credentials as a successful woman and ours as a feminist magazine. I wish women would not judge other women in this critical way,” Candy continues. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but for me, Kim’s success should be applauded, not sneered at or, indeed, denigrated. She is the perfect face for an issue devoted to self-belief. She has built a staggeringly influential business empire and inspired many young women to be more confident about their bodies. And let us remember, no one woman can embody all the hopes, beliefs and ideals of everywoman.”
“It would be great to recognize the value of what each of us does individually rather than continually comparing ourselves—and then illogically deciding somehow we don’t measure up. I think ‘if she can do it, I can doo’ is a better approach, and I hope that when we next carry out a survey on womanhood, we can rely on you to sow the seeds of a revolution in self-belief. How liberating would that feel?” she asks.
Elle U.K. published three different covers, and in the accompanying profile, the E! reality star discusses her journey thus far. “It’s taken me a long time to be happy with my body and for my confidence to grow to what it is today. I grew up when the body to have was the tall, slim, supermodel one, like Cindy Crawford‘s. No one looked like me,” Kardashian recalls. “It’s good to break the mold and recreate one.”
“I’m an Armenian girl, I have shape, and it turned out people liked that. That makes me feel good about myself and about other women for being so supportive,” Kardashian tells Elle U.K. “I am a confident woman, but I didn’t just arrive confident—it has built over the years and that is a big part of who I am now.”
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