D Dipasupil/Getty ImagesHow is Kendall Jenner 20 already?! It's as if she went from sweet 16 to supermodel-in-the-making overnight.
Or perhaps another way to look at it is, how is Kendall Jenner only 20?! Her career apart from her famous family has grown in leaps and bounds, seemingly making its biggest strides just over the past year, her last of teenagerdom.
Seriously, Kendall's come a long way since the days when she and Kylie Jenner were, like, the same person. Once upon a time they were stuck like glue on Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the joined-at-the-hip sisters—who are less than two years apart, after all—doing everything together, sporting similar styles and the same long, dark straight hair and rolling their eyes practically in sync when Mom, Dad or one of their other siblings happened to annoy them.
But that was ages ago, at least in celeb-news years, and we've got to hand it to Kendall for being able to go from "oh, it must've been so hard for her to catch a break" to a fashion-industry favorite who has distinguished herself as one of the most sought-after It girls. She barely even uses her last name anymore!
And with today being her 20th birthday, it's time to note 20 ways in which Kendall killed it this year as she continues to come into her own:
1. Kendall Covers Vogue: Not the American version, but it's only a matter of time. At the wee age of 19, the leggy brunette scored solo covers for Vogue Paris' October 2015 issue and Vogue Japan's November 2015 edition, barely a year after her debut in the paper pages of U.S. Vogue—in the September issue no less! It all makes perfect sense, though... Kim Kardashian and Kanye West may have been the first members of the fam to grace the cover of Vogue, but Kendall and editor in chief Anna Wintour share a birthday. They're meant to be. (And happy birthday to Ms. Wintour today, too!)
2. Runways Around the World: Once again, she strutted her stuff in New York and Paris and back again for fall and spring/summer fashion weeks.
3. She Kept It Real About Wanting to Be Her Own Person With Her Own Career: In the February 2015 issue of Allure, Kendall admitted it can be difficult to get a spotlight to herself once in awhile among all her famous family members. "As selfish as this sounds, I wanted the attention to be on me for five seconds rather than my family," she explained why she asked big sister Kim Kardashian to not attend the Fashion Week shows she was walking in last year. "If they were sitting front row, it would have been all about, 'Oh, Kim goes to Kendall's first fashion show!'" Kendall recalled. "I love Kim, but for a minute I wanted it to be like, 'OK, this is [Kendall's] thing—and she's taking it seriously."
4. Street-Style Smarts: No big deal, she's just regularly cited as someone you should be dressing like every time you leave the house...
5. ...or get on a plane. #BagGoals.
6. Dear Dad: It's been easy to compartmentalize from the outside, but this was also the year that Kendall's father went public with her decision to live the rest of her days as Caitlyn Jenner. While the emergence of Caitlyn became a hot topic all over the country, Kendall and Kylie were adjusting to the major change in real life and couldn't have been more accepting, supportive and graceful about it.
7. Instagram Instinct: Sorry, Kimye—for whatever reason (hair artistry, wedding gowns, fake-sleeping), Kendall broke your record in June for most-liked Instagram pic. She shared some of her social-media philosophy with the New York Times last November, saying, "I just want to be the best me I can be. So having the power that social media does, I think just seeing how many people care about you and seeing how many people, like, want to watch what you're doing, it just makes you really want to do the best you can do."
8. She Never Needs Pants: It's "no shoes, no service" for a reason, but who could deny Kendall in one of these leggy looks?
9. Sealed With a Kiss: How many teenagers have their own signature Estée Lauder lipsticks?
10. Larger Than Life: Or have their own billboards in Soho?
11. Sundays With Auntie Kendall: When she's home in L.A., Kendall's companions of choice are her nieces and nephews. "Sunday is my day," she told E! News last month during Paris Fashion Week. "Sundays I don't like to talk to anybody, and I like no makeup, my sweats and just hang out with the kids at the house. With the little ones."
12. Magazines for Days: In addition to the weekly Vogue mentions, in the past year Kendall's been in or on the cover of Allure, GQ, Harper's Bazaar and Love, been a "guest columnist" for the Wall Street Journal's WSJ lifestyle mag (she got her own pointillist sketch and everything) and shot campaigns for Calvin Klein, Balmain x H&M, Estée Lauder and Fendi, as well as posed for her and Kylie's new shoe line together. Pretty much the only place she wasn't was Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" video, but there was a perfectly undramatic reason for that.
13. Leader of the Pack: And of course she was included when Vogue coined the members of the 21st-century Brat Pack.
14. Hitting the Links: Being linked to Justin Bieber and Harry Styles is so last year. Kendall seems too darn busy to be focused on any one guy, but in 2015 she's been rumored at one time or another to be more-than-friends with Nick Jonas, Michael B. Jordan, Lewis Hamilton and Lakers rookie D'Angelo Russell. That's not bad for an entire lifetime, let alone just one year-in-the-life.
15. Bathroom-Attendant: You never really grow out of taking selfies in the mirror at events when you're all dressed up.
16. She'll Tumble for Ya: One day, however, she will be a little old for this, so best she do gymnastics on the red carpet whenever the mood strikes and the skirt length allows.
17. Sister Act: Back on the flip side, never too old to hold hands with your BFF-for real, for real.
18. Kendall Wins at Being Karl: The Chanel-runway regular paid tribute to the man behind the couture, Karl Lagerfeld, by dressing up like the iconic designer for Halloween. Sans pants, of course.
19. She's Not Afraid to Stick Out: Why not pierce a nipple or two?
20. Family First: No matter how busy or one-name famous she gets, Kendall is first and foremost a member of this family. But that doesn't make her any less her own woman—rather, as she grows up, she'll understand more and more just how important that built-in support system is.
Happy birthday, Kendall!
Don't miss the season premiere of Keeping Up With the Kardashians on Nov. 15 at 9 p.m. only on E!