Once again, Kylie Jenner has defended her “self-made” status.
In 2019, Jenner made the cover of Forbes and was dubbed the world’s youngest “self-made billionaire,” which had many people questioning what it meant for her to be “self-made,” considering that her parents are Kris and Caitlyn Jenner.
In a new interview with Who What Wear, Jenner once again addressed the speculation regarding her “self-made” wealth — an issue she has been dealing with for the past seven years.
“None of the money I've ever made is inherited, so it's technically true,” she said. “But people just feel like the privilege I've had was a major stepping stone.”
Forbes defines “self-made” as “someone who built a company or established a fortune on her own, rather than inheriting some or all of it.” By that metric, Jenner qualifies, even though she was born into a family with significant resources, as her fortune came through a business she started, Kylie Cosmetics.
After people criticized Forbes back in 2019 for labelling Jenner “self-made, she addressed the backlash in an interview with the German edition of Interview magazine later that year, saying she was was “very proud” of her status.
“There’s really no other word to use other than self-made because that is the truth," Jenner said at the time. “That is the category that I fall under.”
Jenner was 21 when she was declared the youngest self-made billionaire, but the following year, Forbes said she “creat[ed] tax returns that were likely forged” in order to give off the impression she was wealthier than she is, and the magazine reduced her net worth below the billion mark. Last year, Forbes ranked Jenner at #52 on their list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women, with a net worth of $670 million.
