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For most of my adult life, disliking Kim Kardashian has felt like the culturally correct thing to do. 

Growing up in the noughties, she represented everything we were told was wrong with modern celebrity culture: she was famous 'without talent', visible without having any 'real substance', and she had influence 'without any expertise'. 

At the time, the criticism wasn't entirely unfounded.

Kardashian's introduction to the public consciousness back in 2007 came via a sex tape (whose release, by the way, remains deeply complicated and contested), followed by a reality television empire built around documenting her family's daily lives. 

Watch: Em Vernem discusses Kim K's rumoured new relationship with Lewis Hamilton on Mamamia Out Loud. Post continues below.

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Kim Kardashian, Lewis Hamilton and the 'Kardashian Kurse' | Mamamia Out Loud

Then there was the infamous 72-day marriage to Kris Humphries. The endless Instagram selfies. The impossible beauty standards and the continual accusations that she was famous simply for… existing.

She became unavoidable in the celebrity world, but somehow, often as the punchline. 

And yet, here we are, nearly twenty years later, still talking about her. A lot. It's not because Kim is desperately clinging to relevance. It's because she keeps finding new ways to remain so. 

Celebrity culture is designed to be brutal and temporary.

Famous women, in particular, are expected to peak quickly and then quietly disappear when the next hot young thing bursts onto the scene. The graveyard of popular culture is littered with women who were once considered unavoidable, just like Kim.

Yet not only is she still relevant, but in 2026, she remains incredibly influential. 

So why do we still talk about her as though she is the same woman we met almost 20 years ago? We don't do that with other celebrities. 

When Robert Downey Jr. rebuilt his career after addiction and professional collapse, we called it one of Hollywood's great redemption stories.

When Martha Stewart rebranded after prison, she became a cultural icon with a certain "second-act coolness" nobody could have predicted. 

Lady Gaga went from meat dresses and shock-pop performances to Oscar-winning actress and musician, and we called it growth.

Even Paris Hilton — who Kim Kardashian once worked for as a personal assistant and closet organiser — has successfully repositioned herself from socialite to savvy businesswoman, and we (rightly) applaud her for proving people wrong. 

We love stories about reinvention. Unless, of course, the person doing the reinventing is Kim Kardashian

Whether you love Kim or hate her, there is one undeniable pattern throughout her career: she keeps showing up in places people insist she doesn't belong. 

It might be easy to forget now, but the fashion world spent years rejecting Kim Kardashian. Critics mocked her appearance and her style. Her floral Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci dress at the 2013 Met Gala became one of the most ridiculed celebrity outfits of the decade.

The message was very, very clear: Kim Kardashian was not welcome in fashion's inner circle. 

Kim Kardashian is now a mainstay at some of fashion's biggest events. Image: Instagram/@kimkardashian.

But today, she has relationships with some of the most powerful luxury brands in the world and her influence on trends is undeniable. Kim went from being the outsider looking in to someone who is capable of shifting entire consumer markets.

She was told she didn't belong, but she stayed anyway. 

The same thing happened in business.

Building a billion-dollar company like Skims requires far more than celebrity. It requires strategic thinking, market understanding, leadership and near-perfect timing. You don't accidentally identify a gap in the market and completely dominate it, like Kim did.

Perhaps no chapter of Kim Kardashian's career has been mocked more aggressively than her decision to pursue legal studies.

The jokes practically wrote themselves and the internet treated her ambitions as a vanity project, with every setback presented as evidence that Kim was clearly delusional. Every failed exam became proof that she should "stay in her lane."

Yes, she failed. But she kept going. She failed again. And still, she continues. 

The older I get, the harder it becomes to ignore just how impressive that persistence is. Most of us are terrified of looking foolish, yet Kim has spent years pursuing a goal while millions of people publicly questioned whether she was capable of ever achieving it.

But while people have continued to debate whether Kim deserved a seat at the table, she has quietly built an empire of her own. An empire that has arguably proven more durable than many of the institutions that once looked down on her. 

Which brings us to the latest chatter about her (rumoured) relationship with F1 legend Lewis Hamilton. 

The reaction has, annoyingly, been entirely predictable. Kim Kardashian at Formula 1? Why is she there? What business could she possibly have in that world?

Kim's presence at recent F1 races has raised eyebrows…but why? Image: Instagram/@kimkardashian.

It's the same question that's been asked of Kim her entire career. And the answer, in 2026, is that Kim Kardashian actually has a lot of business being there.

Every race weekend is packed with celebrities, influencers, actors, musicians, socialites and assorted VIP guests. Wives, girlfriends and famous friends are regularly shown on broadcasts and teams eagerly post them across their social media. 

Yet somehow, when Kim Kardashian turns up, we're suddenly asking whether she's 'earned the right to be there'. 

Formula 1 has existed for 76 years, but let's not forget its recent explosion in popularity is largely thanks to something that sounds suspiciously familiar: reality television.

Millions of new fans discovered the sport through Netflix's Drive to Survive, a behind-the-scenes reality series that transformed F1 from a niche motorsport into a global entertainment product. 

In other words, one of the world's most prestigious sporting competitions owes a significant portion of its modern cultural relevance to exactly the kind of celebrity-driven storytelling people have spent years mocking Kim Kardashian for mastering. 

And if you think F1 doesn't understand the value of Kim Kardashian? Think again.

Teams, broadcasters and fan accounts have generated enormous amounts of engagement from her rumoured connection to Lewis Hamilton and her presence in the paddock already.

Photos, videos and memes have been viewed millions of times.

Kim is not a distraction from the "business" of Formula 1; in 2026 this is the business of Formula 1.

These days, the sport is as much a cultural product as a sporting one, and celebrity is part of the ecosystem. Visibility is currency and attention is valuable and Kim Kardashian, like it or not, is one of the most powerful attention-generators on the planet.

If there is one thing she's demonstrated over the past two decades, it's that she has an extraordinary ability to create space for herself in rooms that initially reject her. And then succeed in them.

That is the real story of Kim Kardashian. It's not fame or scandal or reality television. 

It's legitimacy. 

Fashion, business, law, cultural gatekeepers and the public have all dismissed her. Yet she remains. 

Not because she has been "handed" success, or because she got lucky. But because she is relentlessly strategic, ambitious and adaptable. 

The older I get, the harder it becomes for me to see Kim as a woman who is simply obsessed with fame. What I see now is someone who is tirelessly committed to self-reinvention. 

Becoming successful once is impressive, but remaining relevant for two decades requires something else entirely. That requires discipline, curiosity, resilience and yes, intelligence. 

Let me be perfectly clear: Kim Kardashian is not perfect. She's made mistakes, has, fairly, attracted legitimate criticism and has no doubt benefited from enormous privilege. 

But I think we have reached the point where continuing to reduce her to the circumstances of her "arrival" says more about us than it does about her.

She moved beyond that story years ago, and we are the ones who keep dragging her back to it. 

You don't have to like Kim Kardashian. I'm not even sure I would describe myself as a fan. But after spending 20 years watching her evolve while the world insists on viewing her through an increasingly outdated lens, I've come to a conclusion I never expected: 

Kim Kardashian deserves more respect than we give her. 

Feature image: Instagram/@kimkardashian.