Kim Kardashian Reveals the Reason Why She No Longer Smiles in Photos

Smiling is not her favorite. Kim Kardashian revealed in a new interview why she rarely smiles in photos. The reality star, who's currently expecting a baby boy with her husband, Kanye West, said it stems from her first pregnancy with daughter, North West, now 2.

At the time in 2013, Kardashian was suffering from a medical condition, which caused her bloat, and was heavily scrutinized by critics for her weight. "As of right now, I don’t feel like I’m gonna get preeclampsia again," the brunette beauty said. "Which last time [contributed to] not only the weight, but also the swelling that everyone would make fun of, not understanding that I had this condition."

In this case, words truly hurt her. "It was the worst!" Kardashian recalled of the fat-shaming she experienced. "I couldn’t help it, and everyone would say, 'She can’t stop eating.' I delivered at 180, and they were like, 'She’s 210 pounds. She’s getting dumped because she’s too fat' and all these ridiculous stories. It really took a toll after the fact, when I was losing weight. I gained 50 pounds, and it’s tough to get it off."

Kris Jenner's daughter said the taunting transformed her. "I was dedicated, but also, it changed the way I viewed wanting my picture taken," Kardashian shared. "Before I was always smiling, and so into being out and about. After I had the baby, I was like, 'These are the same people that made fun of me, and posted the stories that were so awful, calling me fat for something I couldn’t control.'"

But she was able to control how she conducted herself in public. "'I don’t want to smile for them. I don’t want to be out,'" Kardashian recalled of her thoughts at the time. "Even if I was more confident, I just didn’t feel like being that girl who was going to be smiling for every photo. It changed my mood; it changed who I was; it changed my personality a lot."

North West's mom said she wanted to protect her kids from experiencing the same. "Luckily, the paparazzi have been really respectful, especially overseas," the often-photographed reality star shared. "That’s probably why I can take [Nori] to ballet and things that she enjoys, because I feel like there has been a boundary that we’ve set. Kourtney and I talk about it all the time, that it’s about teaching our kids that it’s a different world: there’s social media where you can be scrutinized. Our kids are too young, but [for] our sisters Kendall and Kylie—they’re teenagers, and they love to share their lives, that’s just what teenagers do. But it can be hard on your soul when you are so scrutinized."

 

Kim's takeaway from her family's struggles has made her want to raise North to be confident and bold. "It’s just about raising strong children," she shared. "I would pray that whoever we bring into this life could handle this lifestyle, and I really believe they can. They chose us because they can. I look a lot at how my parents raised me, and I hear amazing stories of how my husband was raised, so you just have to try to live the most normal life within this craziness."

And, against all odds, she's found those moments of normalcy. "When I was pregnant with [North], I thought, My life is so hectic—how am I gonna take her to ballet classes and soccer? I had these visions of all the things I did growing up, and I was really freaked out," "[But] when it happens, you just instinctively know how to do it."