Kylie Jenner has been crowned the youngest ever self-made billionaire by Forbes Magazine and since, people have been wondering if she actually is “self-made,” with a wealthy and famous family like the Kardashians to keep her afloat.
Kylie Jenner is the youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, and at the age of 21 she has been ranked the youngest ever billionaire in the world.
In 2015, Kylie Jenner launched ‘Kylie Cosmetics’ and since then it has grown massively. The cosmetics company started off in 2015 with liquid lipsticks and liners to match and has since become a company with various collaborations in makeup, from eyeshadows to bronzer and setting powders.
Kylie started off only selling her products online and then ventured into having her own pop-up shops that continuously racked up a very high sale numbers.
With this alone she was rolling in the profits, but she then decided to sign an exclusive distribution deal with Ulta – a U.S beauty retailer. Within six weeks, Kylie Cosmetics sold $54.4 million worth of products in Ulta.
From the amount she has made last year which was $360 million to the amount she has made since teaming up with Ulta, Forbes has estimated that Kylie Jenner’s company is worth $900 million.
Jenner has a following of 129 million on Instagram alone, as well as also being on Twitter and Snapchat. Each time she promotes her products on her social media, she reaches a huge audience and that also helps her sales immensely.
Her manager is her mother Kris Jenner and she has done collaborations with her famous sisters, Kourtney, Kim and Khloe Kardashian. Having these people promote your products is a very big incentive, as they too have a huge following of fans. The collaborations with her family also build revenue as people love the Kardashians and will buy whatever they are featuring in.
After getting all the questions on how she could be “self-made” after Forbes listed Kylie in ‘America’s Richest Self-Made Women’ last year, they came out and gave their explanation, and they still stand by their definition of self-made today.
“Forbes defines “self-made” as someone who built a company or established a fortune on her own, rather than inheriting some or all of it. As long as the list member didn’t inherit a business or money, she is labelled self-made”, said Forbes.
Many people will not agree that Kylie Jenner is self-made due to her family and their status of wealth but Forbes argue that she is self-made as she has built her company from the ground up by promoting it on social media, coming up with new ideas for cosmetic products, collaborating with the right people and teaming up with Ulta to expand her company.
While there is speculation about whether she will sell her cosmetic empire, Kylie is only at the beginning as she plans on holding on tight to her company and building it even more.