Anyone investigating or even trying to understand the world of stardom, needs to establish the definition of a star and a celebrity first. What really is a celebrity? What makes someone a star? Is there a difference?

A celebrity is simply a person with fame and public attention in the media, these people are usually in the entertainment business or in sports. Now, a star is a far more complicated matter.

Lots of people have come up with "star theories" to explain the characteristics of a star. However, according Richard Dyer a star is a constructed person by institutions for financial gain. Stars are manufactured to represent "real people" experiencing "real emotions", this is done by advertising, using social media, choosing particular roles in films/series/videos, among others. In his theory, stars are created with two main targets: audience and institutions and cultural hegemony.

The question now becomes: are all celebrities stars? More specifically, are reality stars real stars?

First off, a reality star is an individual who has achieved public recognition primarily through his or her appearance on a reality show. The term is typically referred to a person who wasn't a public figure prior to his or her show. Most of them initially gain fame as part of a reality show, such as Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Dancing With The Stars, Survivor or America's Got Talent and then attempt to use their new-found fame as a platform to further a career in entertainment.

An example of a reality "star" is Kylie Jenner. She is part of the show Keeping Up With The Kardashians (her sisters), in 2012 collaborated with the clothing brand PacSun along with her sister and created their own line "Kendall & Kylie". She has been listed on the Time's Magazine "25 most influential teens" two years in a row. She is one of the top followed celebrities on Instagram and has now a number one app on the iTunes store and her own cosmetics line.

Having that in mind we could use a sort of check list with Dyer's Theory which also includes the "star paradox" which states that: "the star must be both ordinary and extraordinary". This means that the star must be ordinary so people can relate to them (this is the cultural hegemony characteristic) and extraordinary so people idolize them, want to be them (enhancing the profits of the institutions). Kylie Jenner as a reality personality has become a star.

She has a constructed image as we can see because she was born in a family that already had a "household name" and was shaped by the image she has to portray. And like in many other reality shows the images we see on air are edited and designed in order to entertain and even though they aren't rehearsed some unwanted actions can be cut.

As we can see from the facts that she has created trends, and people all around the world want to be like her. She -and her sisters, supports the cultural hegemony by providing differences in a world where being blonde, tall, slim, and with certain characteristics the Kardashian-Jenner sisters created the curvy, thick lipped, and colorful hair trend.

In conclusion Kylie Jenner (along her sisters) are real stars as they produced a brand identity and constructed their public lives around it and they are gaining profit from it. They also represent now shared cultural values and attitudes and promote certain ideologies through their social media and show.

Perhaps not all reality personalities are real stars, but definitely some like the Kardashians and the Jenners are.