Khloe Kardashian Tackles a Taboo Topic
You don’t need to be a “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” devotee to know that Khloe Kardashian-Odom keeps it real. Nothing is off limits for the reality star – whether the cameras are rolling or not – and she’s hoping that her openness rubs off on others, especially adolescent girls.
While you likely know a lot about what she’s been up to the last few years – her exploits with her sisters, marriage to Lamar Odom, the “X Factor” gig, the book, the fragrance, the clothing line, the zillion magazine covers – it is less known that she’s been working with U by Kotex on their Generation Know campaign to help develop the first generation of girls who understand their bodies – and are comfortable talking about them.
“I’ve been doing this for three years now,” Khloe tells omg!. “When I was first asked to work with U by Kotex, my little sisters were younger – Kendall was 14; Kylie was 12 – and at that transitional age of womanhood,” Khloe tells omg!. “So this topic really struck a chord with me. It was something that was so authentic and something I really wanted to talk about.”
[Related: How Kendall and Kylie Jenner Handle the Haters]
And something she didn’t necessarily feel comfortable talking about when she was that age.
“When I was growing up, Kourtney is five years older than me and Kim is three-and-a-half and that’s a big age gap in your teenage years,” says the brunette. “Now we’re so close, but at that age I didn’t feel comfortable talking to them about periods or this or that. It’s awkward! And you saw that later on our show at one point when I asked Kendall and Kylie, who were probably too young at the time: Do you know what tampons are? Do you know how to use them?And they were like: ‘You’re embarrassing us and we’re filming this!’”
So Khloe is working to make the topic of girls’ health less taboo.
“There was a lot of stuff I was never told growing up – not because no one was willing to, but I was too embarrassed,” admits the 28-year-old. “So I want young ladies to know this happens to everyone.”
And Khloe knows she’s the right one to help spread the message.
“I have always been pretty confident as a person in general,” she smiles. “I think because people – even my girlfriends – felt like it was a secret [it gave me more confidence to speak out]. They’d whisper: Do you have a tampon? Even when I go to Clippers games [to watch Lamar play], I’ve literally heard women whispering from stall to stall to ask for a tampon and I’ll be like, (loudly) ‘I have one!’ People in their 20s or 30s should be comfortable to ask that question because, again, this happens to everyone. I just feel like, what’s the big deal?!”
What is a big deal – at least in the celebrity world – this week have been the first photos of Khloe’s sister Kim’s baby bump, which was on display during a photo shoot the sisters did for their clothing line Kardashian Kollection on Tuesday.
“It was such a fun shoot,” Khloe says. “I think it’s my favorite shoot so far. It was all so cute – bicycles and balloons and it was very girly and proppy. We hadn’t done a lot of shoots with props before. And to get to work with your sisters is always a ball. We had [Kourtney’s] babies there. It was a lot of fun.”
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