Recently, the cover of Forbes August 31st issue was released to the public. And on the cover was none other than America's cosmetic queen, Kylie Jenner, alongside the statement "At 21, She's Set To Be America's Youngest Ever Self-Made Billionaire." This statement, no, this small phrase, "self-made," stirred up a lot of discontent, hate, and genuine confusion.
The Oxford Dictionaries define self-made as achieving success or money with your own effort. Kylie is both successful and rich and she put in the effort to get where she is today. Sure, Kylie Jenner has a lot more resources, publicity, and connections than the average fledgling businesswoman does, but does this truly mean she's not self-made? All businessmen and women leverage their connections and assets to be successful. The only difference is Kylie had an upper-hand. Instead of starting from the bottom, she started from the top and rose even further.
I'm not saying Kylie Jenner is a person without any faults. But she was able to turn one of her biggest insecurities and create a multimillion dollar corporation out of it. Like the cover says, she was able to leverage her fame to produce a successful business.
Her unique background just offered her more space to fail and get back up than the average person.
Maybe Kylie is self-made in the same way that Kim Jong Un is one of the greatest democratically elected leaders. Or maybe Kylie falls into this new category of self-made people in this new technological era. Either way, I do not think Kylie deserves as much hate as she gets. If she wasn't doing anything and just living off of her inheritance, then people would perhaps criticize her for being lazy. But when she creates her own company, people tell her she only got this far because of her family.
Personally, I do not think Kylie should have been on the cover if she was going to be included in this list. This was an opportunity to showcase other women. Women who are self-made in the traditional sense. This could have been an opportunity to hear their inspiring stories because, for the most part, we all know the story of America's youngest self-made billionaire. Although we can probably guess why they put her on the cover.
