‘I can’t say I’ve done it myself’: Kylie Jenner admits she isn’t technically a self-made billionaire
Apr 03, 2019
Last month, the web buzzed with protest after Kylie Jenner, 21, was named Forbes’ youngest self-made billionaire for her company Kylie Cosmetics, worth over $900 million. Many called the title unfitting, accusing Jenner of leveraging her family’s wealth for profit and success.
Jenner addressed the criticism in late March, saying, “There’s really no other word to use other than self-made because that is the truth. That is the category that I fall under.”
Now Jenner appears to be changing her tune, at least a little bit.
In an interview with the The New York Times published last weekend, Jenner said, “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,” Jenner said. “But I have had a lot of help and a huge platform.”
Jenner has over 20 million followers on her Kylie Cosmetics Instagram account and over 130 million on her personal account.
According to The New York Times, the Kardashian and Jenner influence is such that advertisers will pay up to $1 million apiece for sponsored Instagram posts. Snapchat lost $1.3 billion alone when Jenner tweeted, “Sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me … ugh this is so sad.”
The Kardashians were not well known until around 2007, when Kris Jenner pitched what would become the reality TV show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” to producer Ryan Seacrest, according to The New York Times. Kylie Jenner was nine years old when the show first aired.
Kylie Jenner told Forbes in March that the secret to her success was “the power of social media.”
“I had such a strong reach before I was able to start anything,” Jenner said.