Celebrity and fame used to come about as a result of widespread exposure to someone’s genuine talents. Somewhere along the way, we forgot talent was a requirement, or perhaps society simply did away with it because the less talented people weren’t being given a fair chance at stardom and America values fairness. 

Perhaps that is why this country is responsible for creating “fame monsters” that are only so because someone—like a producer at a cable entertainment news network—said so. 

Regardless of why or how, it must say something about our culture when we catastrophically supported the rising celebrity of the family of a previously unknown Calabasas socialite who had her sex tape with a rapper leaked. Even more perplexing, what does it say about us when the 18th birthday of said socialite’s little sister is a widely anticipated event?

READ MORE: 11 Kardashian-Inspired Music Lyrics

To say the Kardashian-Jenner clan has no talent would be very unfair; they are public relations and marketing moguls. They have their hands in almost every niche conceivable from fashion to panty liners for bladder leakage. Matriarch Kris Jenner especially deserves praise for her skills and should definitely teach a class along the lines of: “The Business of You: How to Make Yourself Relevant and Stay Relevant Even though You Really are Irrelevant.”  

For better or worse, our love-hate relationship with the family skyrocketed them into unconceivable levels of fame and wealth. The entire family reportedly has a net worth of over $300 million. 

Enough has been said already about the Kardashians and their vain lifestyle.  Bashing them or bemoaning their perceived plastic lives is a waste of words. They are who they are and they love it—and apparently some of us do as well. 

What is truly troubling revolves around youngest sister Kylie Jenner. I can hardly imagine the intense pressure of living with family members that make so much money in the public eye. We see where the money is coming from and we know when someone is actually doing something for it, or watching the money roll in as collateral from other people’s work. The latter is what happened to Jenner because after all, she was just a preteen when Keeping up with the Kardashians premiered on E!.

READ MORE: Kendall Jenner's 7 Best Looks

However, like many teenage girls desperate for attention, Jenner’s look became more sexualized. She got lip fillers, contoured her face beyond recognition, and posted provocative pictures on Instagram. Yet, the more she beat her face and undressed for the camera, the more she was compared to her older sisters before Jenner was even 18. 

Then the year of her 18th birthday comes along and we start to create an unofficial countdown to her “legality.” Tabloids constantly asked if she was of legal age yet. Her then rumored boyfriend Tyga, who was 25 when he started dating Jenner, probably must have been counting down the days himself with anticipation.

When she finally did turn 18, many people no longer had to feel creepy out harboring certain thoughts about a minor. Jenner even rewarded all of us with her most provocative photo shoot to date less than a month after her birthday. 

None of us will bear the guilt but I have to ask, did we drive Jenner to this? If we hadn’t been so fixated on the sex that her older sisters were selling in the guise of products and commodities, would she have acted differently?

The main thing that would drive a teenager to get cosmetic surgery is a self-esteem issue. We love to mock the Kardashians for not having talent and yet we hunger to see them fail because we are so sick of them. Look in the comment sections of almost any Kardashian related post and in seconds you will see how much we are rooting for their failure. Factor that worldwide pressure during the awkward teenage years and think about the outcome. 

READ MORE: Caitlyn Jenner Takes On Issues In Transgender Community In 'I Am Cait'

Kylie Jenner and the rest of her family are not victims of our own insecurities. Ryan Seacrest gave them the airtime but we laid the bricks of their empire. However, we did become fascinated with the sexualization of a minor in an age when girls are not allowed to expose their shoulders at school. We are no better than they are.

Reach Staff Reporter Fehbe Meza here.