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Cashing in on your kids
Sep 5, 2019
Season 1 | Episode 13

Cashing in on your kids

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How did "momager" become a dirty word?

The Kardashians are a big business.

There’s the reality show, of course — season 17 starts this weekend — but between the kids you’ve also got multiple successful beauty lines, a clothing company, a lifestyle brand and the world’s highest-paid model. And then there’s Kris Jenner, the mom, who takes 10% of everything.

Jenner has been managing the Kardashians since day one, and though “momager” can be a dirty word, she owns it. Like, literally. She trademarked it.

But “momaging” isn’t anything new. The history of stage moms goes back to the beginning of show biz, and it’s way more complicated than you’d imagine.

“The term stage mom is an absolute cultural byword for, like, monster woman,” said author Zan Romanoff, who wrote “Why People Love to Hate Kris Jenner, the OG ‘Momager” for BuzzFeed.

On this week’s show, Romanoff unpacks “how the sexist forces that structure the workforce today also affect the fact that we still have stage moms.” We’ll also talk to a stage mom who isn’t American royalty about her day-to-day, and Reema Khrais calls up her own mom to ask about her childhood dreams of starring on “Dawson’s Creek.”

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The team

Megan Detrie Senior Producer
Hayley Hershman Senior Producer
Phoebe Unterman Producer

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