Forbes just released the annual World’s Billionaires list, and Kylie Jenner remains the planet’s youngest self-made billionaire. Yes, youngest (she’s 22). Yes, self-made (despite a lot of help from her famous family, she didn’t inherit her business—she built it). And yes, billionaire (she’s worth $1 billion).
Jenner first made it onto the billionaires list in March 2019, then further cemented her spot in November, when she agreed to sell 51% of her Kylie Cosmetics to beauty giant Coty Inc. for $600 million. The deal, which closed in January, values her business at about $1.2 billion. Cash from the sale and her remaining 49% share of the company make Jenner one of just 2,095 people in the world with a ten-digit fortune.
“I didn’t expect anything. I did not foresee the future,” Jenner previously told Forbes. “But [the recognition] feels really good. That’s a nice pat on the back.”
She started her cosmetics empire in 2014, quickly turning her social media following into a dedicated customer base by using some $250,000 of modeling earnings to pay an outside company to produce Kylie-branded lip kits—$29 packages of lipstick with matching lip liner. The first batch of 15,000 lip kits sold out within the first minute. She soon expanded, releasing 500,000 kits in six shades a few months later.
The business ballooned, thanks to shrewd self-promotion and virtually non-existent overhead. Manufacturing, packaging, sales and fulfillment—all were handled by outside firms. Mom Kris Jenner managed the finances, and Kylie largely hawked the goods herself on social media. Jenner sold everything on her own website until late 2018, when she inked an exclusive distribution deal with Ulta Beauty to put her products on the retailer’s shelves as well.
Around that time, Forbes hailed Jenner—then worth $900 million—as the soon-to-be youngest self-made billionaire ever, in an August 2018 cover story. A few months later, she crossed the billion-dollar threshold and officially became the youngest to a billion, by our count—besting Mark Zuckerberg, who previously held the title when Facebook catapulted him to billionaire-status at age 23.
Jenner is one of just ten billionaires in the world currently under the age of 30. Seven of the ten are heirs. Only three created their own fortune. Besides Jenner, there’s John Collison, who cofounded payments processor Stripe and is worth $3.2 billion, and Snapchat cofounder Evan Spiegel, who is worth $1.9 billion. Both are 29—seven years older than Kylie Jenner.
Source: www.forbes.com
