Keeping Up With the Cornrows

By: Katy Bellotte

What do you get when two teenage starlets butt heads over a hairstyle?

A corn-troversy.

As if it isn’t hard enough to “keep up” with this family — the youngest Kardashian-Jenner sister, Kylie Jenner, has managed to cause quite the squabble in Hollywood with her newest hairstyle: cornrows.

Speculated to have a cumulative net worth of more than $150 million from various clothing lines, television shows and the sex tape that started it all, the members of the Kardashian-Jenner family have undoubtedly made themselves household names. With the recent coming-out of Kris Jenner's former husband, Bruce Jenner (now Caitlyn), via “Vanity Fair” and the ESPN ESPYs, the family has been given an even greater spotlight and social media presence over the past several weeks.

One Kardashian-Jenner’s social media post in particular has everyone talking — and we're not talking about a former Olympic medalist donning an evening gown and pearls. Kylie Jenner, the youngest daughter of Kris and Caitlyn Jenner, flaunted a carefree groutfit, toned abs and cornrows in a mirror selfie she posted on her Instagram last week.

(Photo courtesy of Kylie Jenner via Instagram)

Kylie is no stranger to generating buzz with her racy Instagram photos, but we can't be sure she was aiming for this kind of attention. Just hours after Kylie posted the selfie to more than 28 million followers, “Hunger Games” actress and budding politician Amandla Stenberg took to social media to fire a hefty accusation in response. Her post reads: “When u appropriate black features and culture but fail to use ur position of power to help black Americans by directing attention towards ur wigs instead of police brutality or racism #whitegirlsdoitbetter.”

Kylie responded by throwing shade at the actress, saying: “Mad if I don't, Mad if I do…. Go hang w Jaden or something,” in reference to the actor that made appearances in both of their dating histories. In her next social media posts, the cornrows mysteriously disappeared from the starlet’s million-dollar head.

These less-than-friendly public social media interactions caused quite a stir among other influential members of Hollywood. Justin Bieber and Jessie J are among the slew of influencers impacted by the feud over a simple hairstyle-gone-wrong. But this isn't Kylie’s first rodeo in terms of cultural appropriation accusations. Back in April, she profusely denied a supposed “blackface” photoshoot, and on several other occasions was slammed for donning facial jewelry.

Living in the spotlight has most certainly come back to bite Kylie Jenner once or twice in the past, but the 17-year-old starlet does not seem to be learning her lesson from the plethora of accusations. Time will only tell if the cornrow debate had any sort of impact on Kylie’s judgment.