COMMENTARY: Yes, Kylie is self-made

Forbes magazine released an article July 11 claiming Kylie Jenner is on track to become the youngest self-made billionaire thanks to her cosmetics empire, reality shows and sponsorships. While many of Kylie’s fans were thrilled with the article, others claimed she was not self-made. The thing is, Kylie is indeed “self-made.”

In a tweet following Forbes’ announcement, Dictionary.com threw shade at Forbes by defining “self-made” as “having succeeded in life unaided.” By using Dictionary.com’s definition of the word self-made, many generally agreed upon self-made billionaires do not make the list.

Forbes has qualified Microsoft’s principle founder Bill Gates, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and investor Warren Buffett as “self-made.” However, all three attended Ivy League universities and come from immense privilege. Gates’ father was a lawyer and her mother was a board member for United Way and First Interstate BancSystem;  Zuckerberg’s mother is a psychiatrist and his father, a dentist; Buffett’s father was a four-term congressman.

Even though these billionaires come from a world of immense privilege, since they did not grow up in front of the world, people have no qualms about calling them self-made. Additionally, all three of these “self-made” billionaires are white men, the most privileged of all social groups.

People seem to be confusing privilege with the idea of being self-made. Kylie is a privileged white girl who comes from money, but privilege is not an antonym for being self-made. I believe a self-made person is defined as someone who did not inherit their wealth. I define privilege (in the cultural sense) as an advantage bestowed onto an individual or a group of individuals based on their race, religion, nationality, gender, sexuality, education and/or economic situation. Privilege does not negate a person’s individual success.

The Dictionary.com definition does not really work in today’s society because it eliminates many aspects of privilege. Factors like race, class, gender, socio-economic power and education all play into how someone is raised and what is offered to them in their life.

Privilege is a tough subject to explain, and tougher to accept. It is infinitely easier to assign privilege to someone than to assign it to yourself. It is okay to accept success and privilege at the same time, but be aware that there is so much more to privilege than economic background.

Jenner was never an heir to an empire like Paris Hilton. Yes, her family had money, but not enough to be considered an heiress. While Hilton also comes from privilege, she stands to inherit an empire and reveled in her wealth and status before using her money to release a perfume line worth over $2.5 billion.

Before “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” began in 2007, Kylie’s father, Caitlyn Jenner was worth a little over $9 million. While the Jenner family lived comfortably in a rich neighborhood, there is a massive difference between their wealth and the wealth of the Hilton family, which is estimated at $4.3 billion.

Once the show premiered, everyone in the family started earning money, including Kylie. From the first season, Kylie has been in every season of the show and guest starred on the family spin-offs before landing her own show, “Life with Kylie.” Because she has been a part of the series since the pilot, Kylie has been making money since she was 10 years old.

Additionally, Kylie is financially in a different place than her half-siblings – Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian West, Khloé Kardashian and Robert Kardashian – who inherited a combined $100 million trust fund left to them by their late father, Robert Kardashian. While each member of the Kardashian family has used their inheritance and popularity to build an empire, they still started off richer than Kylie or her sister, Kendall.

For their self-made billionaire issue, Forbes could have placed someone less controversial than Kylie on the cover. Someone like Pat McGrath, a black female billionaire make-up artist who was raised by a single mother, or Oprah Winfrey, who came from a poor family to become one of the most influential people in America could have been featured. However, the focus of the article is how Kylie is about to become a billionaire at only 21 years old.

At the end of the day, Kylie Jenner is a 21-year-old with a cosmetic line that is worth $900 million, and while her privilege has granted her more opportunities for success, she is still self-made.

She did not inherit her wealth from her family, but worked from the age of 10, and in an interview with Instyle UK, she claimed her mother cut her off financially when she was 14. Jenner said in a Forbes interview that she used $250,000 of her own money to start her cosmetic line, Kylie Cosmetics, and not with money that she inherited.

Kylie’s extreme privilege does not negate her successes. So for all of the social media haters, sorry to tell you, but Kylie Jenner is a “self-made” woman.