Born on October 21, 1980, in Beverly Hills, California, Kimberly Noel Kardashian is the second of four children born to the late Robert Kardashian and his first wife, Kris Jenner. Kim was almost wired for fame. A preschool classmate of Paris Hilton, she grew up under the glare and privilege of Beverly Hills, getting an up-close view of Hollywood's pleasures and pitfalls. Her father, the founder of Movie Tunes, Inc., a music and marketing company, was a prominent attorney. A close friend for many years of O.J. Simpson, Robert was one of the football star's defense lawyers during his murder trial. In fact, it was the attorney's home that Simpson left during the famous Ford Bronco police chase shortly before his arrest. Kim's mother, Kris, manages her daughter's career and is also involved in business management deals with the rest of her other famous children. According to Kim, her childhood was hardly the stuff of stardom. Sunday church was a regular part of family life. So was the expectation among the Kardashian children that, once they each reached the age of 18, living off the family dime was no longer an option. While attending an exclusive Catholic girls' high school, Kim worked for her father's company. When he died, the corporation was left to her and her siblings. They've since sold it. "We grew up with privilege so we knew our standards were high ... [and] if we wanted to keep it, we had to work hard," she once said.

 Kim Kardashian started making her way onto the television screen for something completely different, when the E! Network debuted a new reality TV series called Keeping up with the Kardashians. Produced by Ryan Seacrest, the show follows the lives of Kim; her sisters, Kourtney and Khloé; brother Robert Jr.; mother Kris; former stepfather Bruce Jenner (now referred to as Caitlyn); and the two young daughters of Kris and Bruce, Kendall and Kylie. In one memorable episode from the first season, Kim discusses with her family an offer from Playboy to appear nude in the magazine. Kardashian eventually agreed to do it and bared it all for the publication in the December 2007 issue. Her decision to appear in the magazine represents just how far Kim has come in terms of confidence about her own body. A big part of her brand is her curves, something she wasn't always so enamored with, she admits. "I used to say my prayers before bed, and pray I would stop developing," she told Playboy. That's apparently changed. "You always see the typical skinny models and I'm not that and I'm proud not to be that," she stated following the shoot. Since then, Kim Kardashian's celebrity status has only grown. The woman who became the most Googled celebrity in 2008.