Earlier this month, Forbes announced that 21-year-old Kylie Jenner has become the youngest self-made billionaire in history, reaching that status even faster than Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. According to the business magazine, her wealth and estate is valued to be more than one billion, thanks to the success of her company, Kylie Cosmetics. Due to a low overhead, minimal staff and a massive online following for marketing, the beauty empire makes obscene amounts of money.
However, the adjective 'self-made' made many people roll their eyes, as Kylie Jenner was born into a famous family with tremendous wealth. Even Dictionary.com threw shade at her by tweeting the definition for self-made: "Having succeeded in life unaided." Of course, this raises the question of whether any billionaire is really "self-made." But we know all the rich and famous have several advantages in society. Kylie's story isn't rags to riches; it's riches to even more riches.
In a cover story for the latest issue of Interview Germany. Kylie reflected on her brand's success, and fired back at critics who say she's not 'self-made'. "I never thought that this could happen," said Kylie. "I believed in Kylie Cosmetics but I didn't even know what I was getting myself into. It feels amazing, it's wild, and being the youngest ever to do it is a blessing. I now want to focus on giving back to people and doing things that I'm passionate about."
"There's really no other word to use other than self-made because that is the truth," she continued. "That is the category that I fall under. Although, I am a special case because before I started Kylie Cosmetics, I had a huge platform and lots of fans. I did not get money from my parents past the age of 15. I used 100% of my own money to start the company, not a dime in my bank account is inherited… and I am very proud of that."
When asked how she deals with criticism on social media, Kylie said, "I can't remember the day when I didn't have millions of people telling me their opinion on everything that I do, so I have no idea what it would be like for that not to happen. It does get to me sometimes but I feel like God put me in this position because he knew that I could handle it."
Well, if any gods are reading this, I think putting up with mean comments on social media in exchange for becoming a billionaire is a pretty fair trade-off. I'll take it!
In case you're curious, the interview does not cover any of the drama regarding Kylie's former best friend, Jordyn Woods, who allegedly hooked up with her half-sister Khloé Kardashian's boyfriend, Tristan Thompson. (As a result of the scandal, the couple, who has an 11-month old baby, reportedly broke up.) But hey, with a billion dollars, Kylie could just order a robot that looks just like Jordyn.
