Kylie Jenner has been listed as the world’s youngest self-made billionaire by Forbes’ annual billionaires’ list. Whether her wealth has been generated in a “self-made” manner is debatable. Many are sceptical and seem to be of the opinion that her wealth is highly dependent on her exposure in Keeping Up With the Kardashians. With that said, her rise to success is a bit of a surprise as the youngest and for a time, the least popular of the Kardashian-Jenners clan became the richest. In simpler terms, Kylie became a billionaire before Kim.
A key contributor to her success is her mother Kris Jenner, who happens to manage all the careers of her children. She was instrumental in the launch of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, as she was the one who pitched it. Kylie was not at all too relevant for the show, serving mainly as a supporting character. With that said, as Kylie progressed into her late teens, Kris began pulling the strings by securing sponsorship and licensing deals. Together with her sister Kendall, they launched lines such as PacSun, Steve Madden, Topshop and Sugar Factory. Kylie later went into the hair extensions line with a brand called Bellami Hair. With that said, the true stream of cash came in later.
Kylie, at the age of 17, back in 2014, utilised a quarter of a million dollars earned from her sponsorships and modelling careers to invest in eponymous lip kits. What makes her story distinguishable is the fact that her investment came from her own pocket, being the sole proprietor of Kylie Cosmetics, holding the titles of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Marketing Officer.
Her mother is trusted with the role of Chief Financial Officer as she continues to manage Kylie’s career. One of the reasons why she has achieved such financial success is because she did not need an outside investor since she already had an exceedingly healthy amount of capital ready at her disposal. Had she needed an investor, she may have not made it to the billionaire pool at such an early stage.
Kylie founded the company with her own money, which she had earned thanks to the astuteness of her mother. She attributes a significant amount of her success to her social media following, stating that she had an incredible reach before she had even started. With that said, Kylie has had more capital at the age of seventeen than most will ever have in their lifetime and her background is also most likely to have had a strong impact on her social media success.
So would you define Kylie as a self-made billionaire? Her success shows one thing though, that wealth brings to the fore even greater wealth.
