Kylie Jenner has been named the youngest-ever, self-billionaire by Forbes magazine. She reached the milestone earlier than Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg who became a billionaire aged 23.
Forbes estimated that Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics is worth at least $900 million, and she owns it all.
However, that description rankled some critics who questioned whether Ms Jenner, whose family has appeared on reality television for years, could truly be described as “self-made”.
Forbes says as long as she didn’t inherit a business or money, she’s labelled self-made.
She also makes money from endorsements and appearances on cable TV’s Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and was ranked at number 2,057 on the Forbes 2019 list.
Kylie Cosmetics last year signed a deal with Ulta Beauty to put her products in all of the retailer’s 1,163 US stores.
The list shows Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, remains the world’s richest man. The 21-year-old founded and owns Kylie Cosmetics, the three-year-old beauty business that generated an estimated $360m in sales last year.
“I didn’t expect anything. I did not foresee the future. But (the recognition) feels really good. That’s a nice pat on the back,” Kylie told Forbes.
Of all the billionaires on the list only 252 are women, and the richest self-made woman is real estate mogul Wu Yajun of China, worth an estimated $9.4 billion.
The number of self-made women reached 72 for the first time, up from 56 a year ago.