In 2018, Forbes put Kylie Jenner on their “America’s Billionaires” cover even though they said explicitly that Kylie wasn’t yet a billionaire, she was just “on track” to becoming a billionaire because of Kylie Cosmetics. Then, about a year ago, Forbes updated their information – Kylie was then officially a billionaire, and officially America’s youngest “self-made” billionaire. They were solely taking into account the paper value of Kylie Cosmetics at the time. Well, it worked and drove the value of her company up, and just months later, she officially sold 51% of her company to Coty for $600 million. She still has a lot of control over her cosmetics company, but she doesn’t have to deal with everything day-to-day. She sold when the getting was good too – I imagine many beauty companies are already taking a huge financial hit in the pandemic. Anyway, Forbes announced this week: Kylie is still the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.
Forbes just released the annual World’s Billionaires list, and Kylie Jenner remains the planet’s youngest self-made billionaire. Yes, youngest (she’s 22). Yes, self-made (despite a lot of help from her famous family, she didn’t inherit her business—she built it). And yes, billionaire (she’s worth $1 billion). Jenner first made it onto the billionaires list in March 2019, then further cemented her spot in November, when she agreed to sell 51% of her Kylie Cosmetics to beauty giant Coty Inc. for $600 million. The deal, which closed in January, values her business at about $1.2 billion. Cash from the sale and her remaining 49% share of the company make Jenner one of just 2,095 people in the world with a ten-digit fortune.
“I didn’t expect anything. I did not foresee the future,” Jenner previously told Forbes. “But [the recognition] feels really good. That’s a nice pat on the back.”
Jenner is one of just ten billionaires in the world currently under the age of 30. Seven of the ten are heirs. Only three created their own fortune. Besides Jenner, there’s John Collison, who cofounded payments processor Stripe and is worth $3.2 billion, and Snapchat cofounder Evan Spiegel, who is worth $1.9 billion. Both are 29—seven years older than Kylie Jenner.
Are we going to repeat the same fight about whether she’s self-made? I don’t feel like fighting. I’ll just say that the criteria Forbes uses to determine who is and is not self-made is not the same criteria that we use on gossip blogs. To Forbes, “self made” simply means that Kylie started a company from the ground up and she didn’t inherit a business, nor did she inherit a fortune. Of course, she did inherit the name and the family connections and a reality show platform and her enormous privilege and all of that. And yes, even if you don’t believe Kylie is technically worth one billion dollars, can you admit that she’s worth high nine-figures?? Jesus H.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid.
Using this logic, let’s just say that Stormi is the youngest billionaire in the world, since she goes to work with mommy and shows up in her instagram.
Youngest money launderer in the world.
I assume Kris was the driving engine, but it is impressive that she parlayed reality TV fame into a huge corporation.
Grotesque
In light of the pandemic, Coty recently revealed to shareholders that it is suspending all deals made after Jan 2019 or so. Including Kylie deal…another evidence that this designation is just smoke and mirrors orchestrated by Kris Jenner
Yes they did and I believe the original agreement gave Coty until April 2020 (?) to fully finalize the deal, so they scooted out just in time.
There were rumblings a few weeks ago that the financials Kris presented to Coty had been doctored to show the company made more than it actually did.
I read the transcript of the call between the head of Coty and it’s shareholders re: Kyle Cosmetics Acquisition and was shocked at how shareholder questions were being glossed over and how much Coty was relying on Kylie’s social media presence. It felt to me that Coty was excited that they were somehow buying a piece of her Instagram, rather than her company.
Kylie and her sisters are competitive, it’s in their DNA. Kylie was actually the ugly duckling amongst them all. While her older sister was expected to succeed Kylie took her interest in makeup and marketed to tweens. So she had her Mom back her and or get her the components she needed to actually package and sell her lip kits I don’t doubt. I give her credit for being more successful then her sisters, and it doesn’t matter if she’s really a billionaire, she has enough money for anything she needs or wants.
I give her credit for her success too.
I just don’t know who buys her makeup. Maybe I’m really out of touch but I watch a lot of beauty youtubers and they never mention her stuff. Maybe I’m just too old? Maybe she hit that sweet spot of tweens with allowance money? I’m genuinely curious.
Hope she’s digging into that wallet to help others.
I’ll never consider someone self made when they had a built-in market of millions of followers. Plus she or her team have been called out repeatedly for stealing ideas from others and copying products.
Just like Paris Hilton, who claims she “created an empire”, I DO NOT consider this “self-made”.
without the name and family, SHE WOULD NOT HAVE WHAT SHE HAS. yes, the make up company has done well, and I give her credit for that, but this idea that she’s “self made” is not accurate. she didn’t create a company independent of her lineage, she created it ALONG SIDE her lineage.
to me, “self made” means you had NOTHING to start with, no money, no family name, no connections, etc. it means you fund-raised to get capital for material and labor. it means you hustled to get your line in local stores just to get it out there…it means you hustled to market yourself by handing out flyers on a street corner (like a friend of mine did when she started an olive oil/cooking stuff store which now has multiple locations). it means you go to conventions and flea markets and other places where you can introduce your line, and hope that a national retailer will add you to their inventory.
you know who is self made? Madam CJ Walker.