As we have all heard recently, Kylie Jenner is currently Forbes's youngest billionaire. Her billionaire status can be attributed to the large success of her makeup company, Kylie Cosmetics, which has a value of $900 million.
There has been an ongoing discussion as to whether Jenner's "self-made" status holds any truth. In fact, several celebrities have taken to social media to either defend or oppose the label of "self-made" given to Jenner. Even Dictionary.com took part in the conversation and threw shade at Jenner.
Honestly, "self-made" is perhaps not the best word to use to describe Jenner. The fact of the matter is that she was born into a wealthy and prominent family, and this obviously helped her have access to a lot of convenient connections that could help her in building her own empire.
Other billionaires like Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey did not have the luxury of growing up rich, with unlimited access to connections and resources that Kylie Jenner has benefitted from. They started from the bottom with whatever they had, and they hustled their way to the top, step by step. Nothing was given to them, they had to go after it themselves, and ultimately, they were highly successful. In my opinion, this is what constitutes a self-made individual.
Jenner has had the privilege of having everything handed to her. There are so many people in this world that have gone to college, got a job, and work incredibly hard to support themselves or their families. There are also a lot of people who are smart and have what it takes but find themselves in unfortunate and limiting circumstances that deter them from achieving their goals.
On the other hand, I do give Jenner a lot of credit for choosing to invest her time, focus and money into the creation of her multi-million, pretty much billionaire dollar empire. Sure, she's had a lot of people by her side to help her in building her company, but she's using her platform in an effective way.
I imagine that being in the public eye and under its scrutiny constantly is hard, and some people don't react very well to the fame and fortune that comes along with their success, or in Jenner's case, with her name. It's not like she had any control over whether she was going to be born into a rich, famous family or not. She could have easily chosen to not doing anything with herself, and live a life of negative habits.
Instead of giving in to the bad behaviors that some celebrities in her position have done, Jenner decided to go on a different path, and figure out a way to use her image to create value in society. That she did and for that, I think Kylie Jenner should be given credit for being a self-determined billionaire, who believed in creating something that a lot of people like.
