What’s Your Definition of ‘Self-Made’?

There is a lot of buzz circling around the idea of what it means to be self-made in America today. Why? Because when Time magazine put Kylie Jenner on their most recent cover, the issue was all about the self-made richest women of today, some of whom are billionaires.

At the humble age of 21, Jenner is projected to be the youngest self-made billionaire in history, according to Time magazine. Her cosmetic company, Kylie Cosmetics, is worth an estimated $900 million dollars.

But is Jenner really self-made?

Let’s say for argument’s sake the 21-year-old wasn’t born into a family that was already leveraging their fame into extreme wealth. When Jenner was just 10 years old she was appearing in “Keeping up with the Kardashians,” the reality show following around her socialite sisters who were already famous for being famous.

Despite her desires, Jenner was thrown into making a lot of money simply because she was lucky enough to be a child of Kris and Bruce Jenner, not to mention being on the hit show that was renewed year after year for $100 million in 2015 and $150 million in 2017, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In fact, even today the show is still on the air, a new season set to start on Aug. 5 on the E! Network. But beyond the money she earns off the reality show her and her sisters share screen time on, she also has managed to catapult her fame to make her a lot of money.

From her status she became a Snapchat queen, then decided to launch a cosmetics line, because, why not? She had the money to start a company, the fame to promote it, and the followers to flock to pop-up shops and buy out her lipsticks.

But is this all self-made? If she was an average Jane, someone who wasn’t born to fame, wealth and a distinguished last name (let’s not forget who her father is) would she be who she is today, with a billion dollars in net worth?

How self-made is someone who already has the financial means to risk starting up a new company, and has the fame behind her to help make something not so unique a billion dollar brand?

Time magazine does rank each woman based on her background, and the article does take into consideration she does come from privilege, which inevitably helped her huge and growing success.

But self-made?

She didn’t have to hustle to figure out how she was going to finance her idea. She had the best of the best in the industry guiding her along the way, resources most people never are able to have by their side even when success starts coming.

Don’t get me wrong, when she could have just retired at 21 and sat around living the good life she opted instead to build a company and make it successful.

No one should discount that, and credit is deserved for what she has created for herself. But self-made?

What do you think? Comment and let us know your definition of self-made.