Forbes names Kylie Jenner 'youngest self-made billionaire', many ask 'really?'
So, Forbes named Kylie Jenner, who will soon turn 21, the youngest self-made billionaire in its latest issue. Forbes wrote Jenner's ever-growing make up company, her endorsements and social media presence were "conservatively" worth $900 million. However, it was the 'self-made' tag with Jenner's name that prompted a grammar lesson for Forbes from netizens, who debated her empire wasn't built from scratch.
The Twitter handle of Dictionary.com was among the first ones to point out the problem. Their tweet read, "Self-made means having succeeded in life unaided." Another user @PedestrianPoet tweeted: "Calling Kylie Jenner a 'self-made billionaire' is like claiming you made soup from scratch because you opened a can and reheated it." Others opined Forbes should have included entrepreneurs who started from nothing.
Kylie is one of the six children of Kris Jenner - the matriarch of the Kardashian family. In 2007, when a sex tape of Kim Kardashian and her former boyfriend Ray J leaked, the family was not much known. But then Kris signed a deal with E! for a reality show 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians', which changed their lives forever.
The show's idea wasn't approved by many when it started but Kris ensured the Kardashians never looked back after it went on air. With 15 seasons and five spin-offs, the show is among the most-watched globally. It details all highs and lows of their lives, including their affairs, pregnancies, businesses, heartbreaks and parties. Kylie too owes a lot to KUTWK.
By the time Kylie Jenner launched her namesake company- Kylie Cosmetics in 2016, she had already become a household name. Her red-carpet trips, her affairs, her surgeries, etc., were all dissected by tabloids and it all contributed to her becoming a social media star, who now has, 110 million followers on Instagram, and 25.6 million on Twitter. Kylie definitely has her mother's business eye.
While Forbes may have gone a little overboard by calling Kylie Jenner 'self-made', it shouldn't be forgotten the model invested $250,000, money she earned from her assignments, to launch the first of the lip kits and we all know how that turned out to be. Her daughter Stormi, who was born earlier this year, does have a role model to look up to.
