Kim and Kanye’s 5-year-old daughter has a boyfriend and people are mad
The internet has responded to stories that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s daughter North has a seven-year-old boyfriend with outrage, but is this wave of fury really warranted?
What in the world?
Most of us will be familiar with the experience of having a kindergarten boyfriend or girlfriend. They usually chased you around the playground at recess and sometimes brought a spare Roll Up to give you as a token of their love.
North West’s ‘boyfriend’ has taken things to a whole other level though. He’s got his own Instagram account, presumably run by his parents, and has been tracking his life and relationship with the Wests and other famous types for the last couple of years. Instead of a Roll Up, he gifts North Tiffany jewellery. Instead of calling her his bestie, he’s dubbed her “Boo”.
The lad in question is Caiden Mills who you should know dropped his own single last year called Dream About Nicky – a tribute to Nicky Minaj. This was a follow-up to his previous viral remix of Nas’ Cops Shot the Kid. This kid is a prolific tiny influencer to be clear.
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So who’s behind this powerhouse prodigy? Caiden’s dad is recording artist Consequence, a protege of Kanye’s and his mum is called Jen the Pen.
Both of Caiden’s parents have appeared on the reality show Love & Hip Hop and the entire family appears to have a very deep affection for Instagram.
“Babygirl I’ll see you soon”
Lately, Caiden’s account has been more closely documenting his friendship with North, showing the little boy shopping for an expensive Valentine’s Day gift for North at Tiffany & Co, posing with his arm around her at Kylie Jenner’s daughter Stormi’s birthday party … and referring to North in kind of adult terms.
“Boo’d Up,” a photo of Caiden and North hugging is captioned.
“Shout out to Northie, Babygirl I’ll see you soon,” a shot of Caiden with a Tiffany bag reads.
There’s something kind of weird about this ‘romantic’ behaviour playing out in small children, especially when it’s being shared on a public Instagram account. It almost reads like a parody account, except there are real kids involved. Gulp.
Carefully curated
This is most definitely a strategic branding exercise at the hands of Caiden’s parents with commercial gain the end game, but it’s interesting that Kim and Kanye are allowing North to be swept up in someone else’s vision.
The Kardashians control their own social media output very carefully and this purported Caiden and North ‘romance’ appears to be a little at odds with this.
Caiden is a kind of surrogate cousin to North and of course, these two are buddies and it’s all completely innocent. Anyone who would think otherwise needs to wash their soul out with very sting-y soap.
That said, the narrative around this ‘romantic relationship’ probably should not be shared publicly like this. The fact that it is being shared by adults who have a close association with the Kardashian-Wests is a great way to build a brand and is not innocent at all.
Nope
The opinionated folk of Instagram – and beyond – are pretty upset about the whole situation …
“This is so unnatural and disgusting on so many levels,” one follower posted.
“Calling child services,” another declared.
“You are too young for stupid publicity stunts. Shame on your parents for using you,” one Instagrammer wrote.
“Who’s ever running this kids account, yikes,” someone else posted.
“It’s innocent”
Others thought this was a storm in a teacup, however, asserting it was all in the eye of the beholder.
“This is awful. Can we please stop sexualising these young children. She’s clutching a unicorn, FFS. Sweet looking kids. End. Of. Story,” one commenter wrote.
“It’s innocent they’re children. Why do people have to go to such outrageous conclusions? They’re bff’s that’s all!” a follower asserted.
Huh? REALLY, Elle?!
We don’t know how to feel, to be honest. While it’s clear that Caiden is NOT North’s boyfriend and the stories about the children ‘dating’ are super wrong, it does seem kinda unfair that their very normal ‘let’s pretend’ role-playing games are being shared so publicly.
Here’s hoping common sense prevails at some point, although we don’t hold out much hope!
