Kylie Jenner is one of the richest celebrities today and there has been a lot of debate over her being called “self-made.” Some people believe that her wealth is entirely (or at least, mostly) self-made while others laugh at the idea of calling Kylie Jenner such a thing. So what is the truth here? Is Kylie Jenner really self-made? Let’s go over the facts to find out the answer.
How does Kylie Jenner make her money?
Kylie Jenner rose to prominence as the youngest sister on the reality TV show Keeping Up with the Kardashian. She has appeared on the show since she was only 10 years old and is still a main cast member today.
When Kylie was a teenager, she began to branch out from the show and, along with her older sister Kendall, made money from endorsement deals as well as licensing her name to various products.
In 2016, Kylie launched her own company, Kylie Cosmetics, which sells different beauty items with the lip kits being the most popular and well-known. Kylie Cosmetics products have been a huge hit since the very beginning and Forbes have estimated the company to be worth around $800 million.
What is Kylie Jenner’s net worth?
Kylie owns 100 percent of Kylie Cosmetics, so the company’s huge profit along with the money she makes from endorsement deals and Keeping Up With The Kardashians put her net worth at almost $1 billion. In March 2019, Forbes announced that Kylie was well on her way to becoming the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.
Is Kylie Jenner self-made?
Yes and no. The answer is a bit complicated because the word “self-made” seems to mean different things to different people.
According to Forbes (who had to clarify this because of the Kylie Jenner controversy) their definition of “self-made” is “someone who built a company or established a fortune on her own, rather than inheriting some or all of it.”
By Forbes’ definition, Kylie is self-made. This is because the reality TV star did not inherit her $1 billion. Instead, she created Kylie Cosmetics with money that she earned from modeling and the first 15,000 lip kits were all funded out of her own pocket.
But, of course, this is when a lot of people realize Forbes’ definition can be flawed and doesn’t capture the whole story. Sure, Kylie did start her successful company with just her own money, but a huge force behind her success has been her famous family. Without the Kardashian-Jenner’s popular TV show, Kylie would not have had the money to start such a huge business or the brand name to promote her products.
For comparison, an average model in the U.S. does not earn much more than $40,000 a year, so the fact that Kylie could fund the production of 15,000 lip kits just from modeling gigs means that she was being paid quite a lot and, as such, already had a head start like no other.
The way a lot of people see the word “self-made” fits better with Merriam-Webster’s definition:
“Made such by one’s own actions, or having achieved success or prominence by one’s own efforts. In the revised edition of Webster’s Dictionary of 1864, this note appeared: a self-made man [or in this case woman, right?], is a person who has risen from poverty, ignorance, or obscurity, to wealth, learning, fame, or power, by means of his own talents or energies, and without the aids by which a result is usually obtained.”
By this definition, Kylie would simply be a young billionaire, not a self-made one.
What do Kylie Jenner and her family think of her ‘self-made’ title?
Kylie actually admitted that she definitely had a lot of help to get to where she is today, seeming to agree with others that she is not self-made: “I can’t say I’ve done it by myself. If they’re just talking finances, technically, yes, I don’t have any inherited money. But I have had a lot of help and a huge platform.”
However, her mother, Kris Jenner, thinks differently. Speaking to CBS Sunday Morning, the momager clarified that her daughter worked hard and we should not dismiss her self-made title so easily. “I think she’s self-made,” Kris said. “I mean, listen, my girls, you can say that certain things have been handed to them, but it takes a lot of work to do what they’re doing… The money she’s made is her own… It was amazing what she did and she showed the rest of us how to do it.
