Forbes magazine has named Kylie Jenner as the youngest ever “self-made” billionaire – and Twitter has some strong feelings about the title, given her wealthy background.
As with everything Kardashian-Jenner related, it appears the world (or at least, Twitter) has nothing better to do than discuss the latest development. The news that 21-year-old makeup mogul and reality TV star Kylie Jenner has officially entered the exclusive billionaires club is big news in the celebrity-loving circle.
The claim by Forbes that Jenner has taken the reign from Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to become the youngest ever self-made billionaire, has proved such a controversial topic that everyone, the Dictionary included, appears to have weighed in. Critics argue that Jenner, who launched ‘Kylie Cosmetics’ at 18 off the back of her fame garnered from the reality show that she appeared in from age nine thanks to her sister Kim, cannot be deemed “self-made.”
The definition of “self-made” is a broad one according to Forbes, while Dictonary.com claims it’s actually rather straightforward – someone who has succeeded in life unaided.
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Dictionaries aside, Forbes argues that they choose to define “self-made” as someone who didn't inherit their wealth. Jenner says she has no trust fund and was “cut-off” from her parents at the age of 15 – though it’s worth noting that she was still living in their mansion and surviving off the royalties of the family reality show at the time.
Forbes says their “scoring system,” developed in 2014, aims to determine just how self-made members are. It ranks wealthy Americans on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being “someone who not only grew up poor but also experienced substantial hardships – like Oprah Winfrey,” Jenner ranks as a 7.
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