In just three years, Kylie Jenner has transformed her makeup line, Kylie Cosmetics, into an $800 million brand. Combine that with her reality television paycheck and social media endorsements, her net worth adds up to be around $900 million. According to Forbes, Jenner is expected to be the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at nearly 21 years old.
But is she really self-made?
How Kylie Jenner leveraged her massive social media following to build a $900M cosmetics fortune:https://t.co/3VGT6MpwmX #SelfMadeWomen pic.twitter.com/fxaqucQZWx
— Forbes (@Forbes) July 11, 2018
There’s no denying that Kylie’s accomplishments are huge. To put her $900M wealth in perspective, her older sister Kim Kardashian West’s net worth is $350M. However, some argue that since she was born rich and is a member of one of America’s most famous families, she’s not actually self-made.
Does Forbes know what Self Made means? https://t.co/r9g3hSytR3
— Kimberly Drew (@museummammy) July 11, 2018
erm. being born into extreme wealth & instant fame is the exact opposite of “self made” https://t.co/c9rZyx03Al
— Franchesca Ramsey (@chescaleigh) July 11, 2018
Calling Kylie Jenner self-made without acknowledging anywhere the incredible headstart she had is what allows people to turn around and look at poor people and ask them why they haven’t become billionaires yet. Her story is not inspiring or motivating for anyone https://t.co/YMnTSzHlKP
— L’Aquarius (@lauxla) July 11, 2018
Even the Dictionary weighed in on the issue.
Self-made means having succeeded in life unaided.
— Dictionary.com (@Dictionarycom) July 11, 2018
Used in a sentence: Forbes says that Kylie Jenner is a self-made woman. https://t.co/sr8Ncd7s5A https://t.co/ehEL7Cf6KV
Despite the critics, Kylie still has wide support from her fans.
Kylie Jenner did EXACTLY what she was supposed to do when you’re born rich. Use that wealth to generate your own. Now she’s the richest in her family 🤷🏾♂️. We have to be the generation to lay the foundation for our kids so they can be better than us..
— JustxDyl (@justxdyl) July 11, 2018
One passionate fan even set up a GoFundMe account to raise $100M to “get Kylie Jenner to a billion.”
LOL !!!!! This is fantastic @KylieJenner let's do this !! pic.twitter.com/oZoLqhtIYG
— Nathan Michaud (@InvestorsLive) July 12, 2018
What do you think about Kylie Jenner’s latest accomplishment? Do you think she is truly a self-made woman or do you think she had a boost from her family? Sound off in the comments!