Moments with Mom: North's Path to Global Domination
Kim Kardashian has had a front-row seat to the North show. "She's a big critiquer," Kim told Vogue of her eldest daughter's fashion input at the 2025 Met Gala. "But it's pretty good, you know, her critiquing."
So while 10 was a formative age for North, and the kid really doubled down on 11 when it came to building her public profile on her own terms, now that she's 12 as of June 15... Well, let her electric blue 'do speak for itself.
Because, as Kim noted outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, North's most winning advice to her lately has been "just be yourself."
Including while her mom was getting ready, Kim added, "So, I love that energy and she was such a positive force tonight."
While North's still a little young for the Met Gala, she is literally along for the ride in the car when Kim gets dropped off.
But for now, she'd prefer to manage her own image and likeness, thank you.
"I like taking pictures of myself, but I don’t like when paparazzi do," North explained to her mother during an exchange for Interview, which featured the child on the cover of its Fall 2024 issue. "When I just woke up and there's so much paparazzi, I’m like, 'Yo, I’m going to sue you.' If I’m ready, if I’m not tired, if my outfit's good, I'm like, 'Okay, I could take a picture.'"
Hmm, sounds like a certain 44-year-old reality TV veteran whose personal brand-building operation remains unparalleled.
"She teaches me patience," Kim quipped in 2023 on The Kardashians of Saint, 9, Chicago, 7, and 6-year-old Psalm's big sister. "She has taught me a lot about life."
Moreover, North's already got multiple aliases, including a rap name—Miss Westie—and has said she's planning to release an album called Elementary School Dropout, a nod to her dad Kanye West's seminal 2004 release The College Dropout. She's not sure yet when her addition to the West family canon will be ready, only promising when a 13-year-old reporter caught up with her at the Rolling Loud California music festival in March 2024 that it was "gonna be great."
So she also already has rapper swag.
"I like singing. Performing is my favorite," North told i-D in October, also listing rapper, basketball player (she plays hoops and loves a courtside Lakers game) and artist as other future occupations she'd like to tackle.
You can also add business owner to the list. "One day," North noted, "I want to own Yeezy and SKIMS," her dad and mom's respective companies.
Before that day comes, however, the tween doesn't plan to just rely on her allowance to furnish her dreams.
"When I'm, like, 13, I want to walk dogs, to make money to buy art supplies," North said, "because everything around here is so expensive."
They grow up so fast.
But as evidenced by her ease in front of the camera and how preternaturally comfortable she appears out in public—enough to signal to photographers at a fashion show to quit paying so much attention to her so as not to take away from the clothes—North is on her way.
"I already do a lot of stuff that I want to be when I grow up," she told her mom for Interview. "I just want to pursue my careers now."
