Kailyn Lowry Says She Felt ‘Pigeonholed’ During Time on ‘Teen Mom’: ‘I Wanted More of a Full Picture’

Kailyn Lowry rose to fame while starring on the Teen Mom franchise, though she admitted that she wasn’t always happy with the way she was portrayed on the show.

While speaking to People in an interview published on Monday, April 21, Kailyn, 33, said she felt “pigeonholed” by the show and became very selective about what she would film about on Teen Mom 2.

“I think closer to the time that I decided to leave the franchise, it was more of [me feeling] like, ‘I am making very calculated decisions and sharing only certain things or making myself available at certain times for certain reasons,’” Kailyn said, noting that she felt the show edited her storylines so that she was portrayed in a certain way. “It made it very difficult for production to create a full picture and full story for me on the show.”

While reflecting on the end of her time on the show, Kailyn said, “At that point it was like, ‘I have to think about how it’s going to play out for the viewers and that is how people will perceive whatever it is that I’m going through or doing.’”

“And that was really, really hard for me because I wasn’t the same person that I was when I started,” she continued.

After making her debut during season 2 of 16 and Pregnant in 2010, Kailyn continued to document her life on Teen Mom 2 until her exit from the franchise in 2022.

During her interview with People, Kailyn explained that she left the show once she felt it “had run its course.”

“I had just built this house and we were on to different things that we would not be able to tell the full story the way that we wanted to and the way that it really happened. You’re edited down to four minutes a cast member, and I didn’t want certain things to not be shown. I wanted more of a full picture,” the MTV alum said.

Fans saw Kailyn welcome her four eldest kids – sons Isaac, 14, Lincoln, 11, Lux, 7, and Creed, 4 – during her time on the show. Meanwhile, she welcomed son Rio with fiancé Elijah Scott in 2022, followed by their twins, Verse and Valley, in 2023.

While Kailyn and her exes have documented their relationships on the show, she told People that she was nervous to introduce Elijah to viewers since their relationship was so new.

“He had never been on TV. He’s never been a teen dad. And so, for us, I had felt like it was time for us to move on,” she said. “I’m thankful that I was on it. I don’t have many regrets about it. To this day, I think it was the right decision.”

Now that Kailyn has put Teen Mom behind her, she said that she wants to be known for her business endeavors instead of her reality TV career. However, the podcast host added that she hopes to one day have a more private life.

“I hope to build successful brands to the point where I’m able to take a step back from [them], because I think a part that gets overlooked a lot is that everything that I do rides on my name,” she told the outlet. “With that comes the fact that I was on Teen Mom, because that’s where my following came from… It’s building something to a place where I can take a step back and not be the face of everything. I think that would be the goal for the next 15 years.”