Social Media Users Slam ‘Forbes’ For Calling Kylie Jenner A ‘Self-Made’ Billionaire
On Tuesday, Forbes declared in a tweet that Kylie Jenner has officially overtaken Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to become the youngest self-made billionaire in history. At just 21-years-old, Jenner is two years younger than Zuckerberg was when he reached that achievement.
But while her fortune is certainly undeniable, social media users aren’t exactly sure she fits into the “self-made” category of the accomplishment.
According to Fox News, Dictionary.com was one of the first to clap back at Forbes over their tweet congratulating Jenner on her success.
“Haven’t we gone over this? Self-made: Having succeeded in life unaided,” they tweeted, along with a link to the definition on their website.
Given the family Jenner comes from, other social media users seemed to wholeheartedly agree with Dictionary.com‘s quick rebuttal.
“You’re literally not self made when you’re born into riches, born into connections, born into likeness. Self made is when you get that yourself working hard by yourself paving lanes for yourself. Not saying this shit was handed to her but i’m sure it wasn’t much of a task,” one Twitter user wrote.
Another explained that part of the problem with heaping praise on her is that Jenner is touted as a hero for women, when in reality she has had a leg up her entire life, and even suggested she has been sleeping her way to the top.
Is it impressive what she’s done? Absolutely.
Should she have respect for it? 1000%.
Is she self-made? Abso-freakin-lutely NOT https://t.co/2MvT0zVJjI— Ashley Alexiss (@AshAlexiss) March 5, 2019
Kylie Jenner & self made don't go together. pic.twitter.com/GR9XwrH65q
— robert ? (borboleta era) (@robertcma) March 5, 2019
Reports are saying Kylie Jenner is the youngest self-made billionaire. Congrats to her hitting that Billie mark, but when u have a rich father who is a former athlete, a rich mother, millionaire siblings, and an established profit making family brand, are you really “self made”? pic.twitter.com/TIOi70TN4A
— Tariq Nasheed ?? (@tariqnasheed) March 5, 2019
People are really out here describing Kylie Jenner as “self-made” I pic.twitter.com/LQdzfcfz1B
— foxy grandpa (@andkatsarah) March 5, 2019
To be fair, while no one seemed unwilling to deny her accomplishment is incredible at her age, the issue appears to be the lack of acknowledgement of just how much easier it has been for Jenner to create such an empire because of the incredible connections she has had throughout her young life, as well as the fact that people have known her name virtually since she was born.
Jenner herself has defended her billionaire status, saying in February that her parents cut her off financially when she was just 15, telling her she needed to learn to save and earn her own money. Since then, she started modeling, and it was a quarter of a million dollars of her own income that she later invested to start up Kylie Cosmetics.
Although the company was launched just four years ago in 2015, Forbes already estimates that it is worth approximately $900 million. Given that Jenner owns 100 percent of the business, all that worth is attributed to her. The remaining $100 million is made up of income from other projects.
