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Kylie Kelce was mercilessly bullied over her height as a teen.
Late last year, Kylie Kelce launched her podcast, which was an instant ratings hit with audiences.
Now, the wife of former NFL player Jason Kelce is introducing fans to things about her life that they never knew.
For example, she experienced vicious body-shaming for years. Why? Because she’s tall.
Kylie Kelce was 5’10” as a high school freshman
While 5-foot-10 probably isn’t “tall” in the grand scheme of things (surely that begins above 6 feet, right?), adolescent bullying isn’t about reality. It’s about finding a potential vulnerability and striking.
During a recent episode of her Not Gonna Lie podcast, the pregnant mom chatted with Drew Afualo — an influencer but also a fellow tall woman — about the process of overcoming those insecurities.
Kylie’s father is 6-foot-9. As a result, she didn’t feel statuesque at home. She still doesn’t — because her husband is Jason Kelce. It’s easy to feel “normal-sized” or even like a “small girl,” as she puts it, when current and former football players fill your life.
“I got ruthlessly bullied by a couple of people,” she said of her early high school experiences.
“One of the worst of them was a guy whose insult was always like, ‘You’re huge, you’re a man,’” Kylie Kelce recalled of classmates who ridiculed her height.
For a time, the cruelty did its work, harming her self-esteem. Only as a high school senior did she readjust her point of view. How? By understanding the true motivations of her bullies.
‘I had to switch the narrative’
“It took me until probably my senior year to be like, ‘Aw, you’re mad that you’re not my size,’” Kylie sagely shared.
Following this realization, she began to see these intended insults as compliments. Sort of. Maybe more like compliments in disguise.
“There was a period of time where I was like, ‘Don’t call me big.’ I would be like, ‘I’m not big, I’m tall,’ or, ‘My thighs aren’t big, I’m strong,’” she detailed.
“I had to switch the narrative,” Kylie Kelce then affirmed.
She explained that she focused upon “not letting those words hold the weight they expected them to hold with me.”
It’s important to remember that body-shaming of all kinds is always wrong. Also, that it often inaccurately describes people’s bodies. (It’s also wrong when the descriptions are accurate, though!)
What is Kylie Kelce’s height today?
Even today, IMDB lists Kylie Kelce’s height as 5 feet, 11 inches. That’s above average, but she’s hardly going to be going into battle with Godzilla any time soon.
There’s an important life lesson: don’t give undue consideration to insults from people who think that 5-foot-10 is “tall.” They’re clearly working through their own insecurities.
Or, more generally, don’t internalize insults from bullies.