Why Is Kendall Jenner on the Cover of GQ: An Exploration

A model speaks.

1. She has the ability to recognize architectural details.

“There’s an arch,” Kendall says helpfully, pointing up ahead at the Arc de Triomphe.

2. She wears hats.

Kendall puts the hat on and studies herself in Kris’s mirror.

3. She once brushed past Michael Jackson (RIP).

As a kid, she’d visit the Neverland Ranch. “I remember going, actually, and as I was leaving, Michael Jackson was coming in. And I was like, ‘Oh, my God! That was Michael Jackson!’”

4. She doesn’t know.

“Honestly, I can’t answer that question. I have no idea. I don’t remember. I was 10 years old when the TV show started. I don’t remember what it was like before.”

5. She can say her name in a French accent.

“…. Kend-all! Kend-all! Kend-all!…” She’s saying her own name in a French accent, repeating it over and over again, as they did when they were grabbing at her, and I look over and she’s looking down at her hands and her hands are shaking.

6. It’s true, I don’t.

“I mean, like, you don’t know what I’m doing tomorrow. You know what I mean?”

7. That thing about her dad.

I say I do know what she means, but that I’m actually curious where the line is, between public and private, and then immediately after saying this, I find it. As she and I speak, the Us Weekly on newsstands has Bruce Jenner on the cover, with the cover line “Bruce’s Journey: How He Told His Kids,” and I ask if she’s comfortable, for instance, having news of her father, who may or may not be undergoing a gender transition, out in the world. “That’s not about me, so we can move on,” she says, politely enough. And then I say something that I regret, once I see the stricken look on her face, pointing out that it is about her—her name is on the cover, too: “Kendall & Kylie finally hear it from him as cameras roll!”

“All that is bullshit,” she says, looking down, suddenly visibly uncomfortable. “I don’t even know what they’re talking about, so I have no idea.”

I stammer out one more unwelcome question, about whether she’s upset because it’s true or because it’s not true, the story about her dad, and she says, “That is not for me to answer.”

8. Hmm, the future.

“Everything that happens is still going to happen, just minus the cameras.”

9.