Kendall Jenner does not want to go through life being referred to as the sister of Kim Kardashian. In fact, Jenner believes that the Kardashian family legacy could be hampering her place in the fashion world.

The model is already making a name for herself, Glamour magazine recently referred to her as a “new style icon,” and she is landing a ton of runway and photo shoots. However, Kendall says it was not until she dropped her last name that the jobs started pouring in. At this time she is simply referring to herself by a single name, Kendall.

In a recent interview with LOVE Magazine Kendall Jenner revealed that her association with the Kardashian clan was actually hurting her career as a high fashion mode. She explains, “I was like, ‘You know what? I want to be high fashion.’ I want to be taken seriously … People think that this [success] just came to me. But it didn’t. What I have has almost worked against me. I had to work even harder to get where I wanted because people didn’t take me seriously as a model. Because of the TV show.”

She further explains, “I went on castings and some people weren’t feeling me because of my name. But it was great when people didn’t recognize me. I was like, ‘Thank you. Please don’t recognize me.’”

How serious is Kendall about her career? Her sister Kim Kardashian was recently offered free tickets to a show where Kendall would be working the runway. When Kim asked her little sister if it was okay to show up, Kendall gave a simple answer — “No.”

While it is hard to fully distance herself from the family that helped make her famous on TV and Twitter, Kendall does appear to be doing her own thing — on her own terms.

[Photo Credit: Georges Biard]

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