- In the most surprising plot twist of all time, Kim Kardashian just announced that she's making a major career change by studying to become a lawyer.
- It was inspired by her work with Alice Marie Johnson.
- (FYI, no, Kim doesn't have a college degree and doesn't actually need one to take the bar exam in California.)
You guys. Kim Kardashian just made a major life announcement during a cover interview for this month's Vogue, and it is that...she's becoming a lawyer. I'm not even kidding. She is studying to become a lawyer.
She's currently doing a four-year apprenticeship with a San Francisco law firm and hopes to take the bar exam in 2022, and the decision was inspired by her work helping to free Alice Marie Johnson last year.
"I had to think long and hard about this," she said. The choice came from the combination of "seeing a really good result" with Alice Marie Johnson while simultaneously feeling like she couldn't help enough.
"The White House called me to advise to help change the system of clemency, and I'm sitting in the Roosevelt Room with, like, a judge who had sentenced criminals and a lot of really powerful people and I just sat there, like, Oh, shit. I need to know more.
"I would say what I had to say, about the human side and why this is so unfair. But I had attorneys with me who could back that up with all the facts of the case. It's never one person who gets things done; it's always a collective of people and I've always known my role, but I just felt like I wanted to be able to fight for people who have paid their dues to society. I just felt like the system could be so different, and I wanted to fight to fix it, and if I knew more, I could do more."
Not only did Kim help bring attention to Alice's case, but she'd actually also been working on criminal justice reform for months before that by visiting prisons, working with activists, and petitioning governors.
Van Jones, one of the activists she worked with, was in the Oval Office when Kim met with Donald Trump.
"I watched with my own eyes Trump confess to having tremendous fears of letting somebody out of prison and that person going and doing something terrible and the impact that would have on his political prospects," he said. "He was visibly nervous about it. And I watched Kim Kardashian unleash the most effective, emotionally intelligent intervention that I've ever seen in American politics."
Van was also quick to defend Kim and her efforts. "This is the daughter of an accomplished attorney and the mother of three black kids who is using her full power to make a difference on a tough issue and is shockingly good at it," he said.
Kim knows she'll probably get a lot of hate for making this type of decision, considering many people in America like to think of her as nothing more than a reality TV star. But she doesn't really care.
"I love to be put in a situation where I can have a conversation with someone who might not be inclined to think much of me, because I can guarantee they will have a different opinion and understand what's important to me after they've met me."
You can read Kim's full interview here.
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This article originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.com. Minor edits have been made by the Cosmo.ph editors.