The Kardashians before fame is a surreal thought, with Kim and her family at the forefront of reality TV. They launched KUWTK season 1 and their whole lives changed, but just how did the Kardashians get famous?

With three seasons of Hulu’s The Kardashians and a whopping 20 seasons of E!’s Keeping Up With The Kardashians, it’s safe to say that Kim Kardashian and the rest of the family changed the reality TV game forever.

Looking back at their success, their personal lives went from simply being in their twenties when KUWTK season 1 began, to cameras being on them at every single moment. How did the Kardashians look before fame and surgery?

The Kardashians before fame

The Kardashians were just a normal family growing up while their late father, Rob Kardashian, worked as a successful lawyer. However, Khloe, Kim, and Kourtney Kardashian didn’t see a ‘penny’ of late dad Rob’s inheritance.

Before Kris Jenner and Rob got married in 1978, she worked for American Airlines as a flight attendant for a year in 1976. Then, in 2007, the mother-of-five met Ryan Seacrest to pursue a reality television show based on her family.

The show’s 14-year run gave and maintained media exposure to each member of the family, allowing them to start and build their individual careers in multiple businesses under their own separate brands, such as Khloe’s Good American.

Kris runs her own production company, Jenner Communications, which is based in Los Angeles. Since even before KUWTK, she has managed her daughters’ Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, Kendall, and Kylie Jenner‘s careers.

According to Kris’ friend Kathie Lee Gifford, the family faced financial struggles before KUWTK. She told People: “Kris was having financial problems, I loaned Kris money years ago because they needed it. They were really struggling.”

How the Kardashians looked before surgery

The family had less plump lips before filler, and Kim has openly admitted that her neck is full of Botox on The Kardashians season 3. However, it’s mainly just the years that have seen the siblings change over time.

Kylie Jenner first got lip filler in 2015 after feeling insecure about her lip size and spun that into the first massively successful Kylie Lip Kits. In July 2018, she removed all her filler but started getting lip filler again shortly thereafter.

Kourtney Kardashian got breast implants at 21 years old, while Dr. Garth Fisher has done work on several members of the Kardashian family. He gave Kris Jenner a facelift, as well as a revision facelift for Caitlyn Jenner.

How did Kim get famous?

Kim became famous after her association with Paris Hilton, who she worked for. After graduating from high school in 1998, Kim became a personal assistant and stylist to the American hotel heiress and socialite.

As a whole, the family’s fame and fortune as we know them today have been widely credited to Kim Kardashian and a sex tape between her and then-boyfriend Ray J, which was leaked online in 2007.

It was in 2003 when Kim was working as a personal stylist to the R&B singer and actress, Brandy, the sister of Ray J. Later, Kim filed a lawsuit against Vivid Entertainment, who distributed her tape, but settled for $5 million to release it.

The attention helped the Kardashian family land a reality TV series, and KUWTK season 1 was born. The series proved successful for E!, and led to spin-offs, including Kourtney and Kim Take New York and Kourtney and Kim Take Miami.

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