Kynlee Heiman isn’t like the average kid.
At only 8 years old, Kynlee has walked in New York Fashion Week, competed in beauty pageants and consistently trains to become a gymnast while acting in films opposite huge stars. But above all, she’s been dubbed online the “world’s youngest bodybuilder” after pictures of her prominent six-pack abs went viral.
“[I train for] six hours in the whole day,” Kynlee exclusively told Us Weekly while discussing the holiday movie The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
For the past three years, Kynlee’s mom, Angel Heiman, has driven Kynlee two hours each way to a gym so her daughter can train for gymnastics. Because she spends four hours a day in the car, that’s often where Kynlee does her homework and according to her mom Angel, “there’s never been any complaints.”
“[Kynlee] doesn’t like to take days off. She doesn’t like to feel like she’s missing anything,” Angel told Us. But the intense working out began as a friendly sibling competition between Kynlee and her brothers during the pandemic, which led to them starting a workout program.
“These kids are so weirdly competitive. I mean, from just brushing your teeth, [to] ‘who does it first? Who does it the best? Who’s the best kid, who’s my favorite?’ I mean, everything about them, it’s like over the top competitive,” Angel said. “So it started out with this workout program because we were stuck at home. And then I just remember looking at her and she was like, gosh, three to four. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I think she has abs!’”
However, Angel admits that a lot of Kynlee’s physique is “genetic and natural,” adding that “[abs are] definitely just kind of there in gymnastics.” She continued, “You naturally will get them. And so it’s not like she has to do a thousand situps or anything crazy. And then just from doing bars and gymnastics, she’s extremely muscular and so a lot of it would be pre-training and then doing gymnastics at such a young age.”
As the saying goes: “Abs are made in the kitchen,” but Kynlee’s diet isn’t as restrictive as it may seem.
“[Kynlee] definitely has junk food, but it’s not like that’s her go-to snack,” Angel said. “But it’s definitely there, but probably not the amount normal kids would probably want or have.”
When asked if she was already in the best shape of her life, Kynlee responded with a laugh, “I mean… yes!”
While working out six hours a day and juggling auditions is a lot for anyone — especially a child — Kynlee is dedicated to doing it all to reach her goals. “My dream is to win the Olympics and be the best in the world and then do acting and be a movie star,” Kynlee said.
When she’s not busy training and working on her gymnast routine, Kynlee is honing her acting skills. She stars in the holiday flick The Best Christmas Pageant Ever alongside Judy Greer and Pete Holmes.
After receiving a push to start acting from her glitz beauty pageant coach, Kynlee landed a role in the feature film as Gladys Herdman, one of the six misbehaved Herman siblings who compete in the local church pageant and find out the true meaning of Christmas.
On set, Angel also recalled Kynlee getting the cast and creatives to do “push up challenges.” Lauren Graham narrates the film and when asked what it was like to meet the Gilmore Girls star, Kynlee joked, “She was very nice, but very strict,” which earned a laugh from Angel.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is now in theaters.
