We knew it was going to happen at some point – a Kardashian becoming a billionaire. It’s kind of a given – they’re up there with the British Royals as one of the most famous families in the world.
Kylie Jenner is the youngest self-made billionaire
You might not like them, but you certainly know who they are.
Kylie Jenner is the youngest of the Kar-Jenners. Many people will know her not just for being the younger sister of Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, Rob and Kendall, but also for her unbelievably successful make-up line, Kylie Cosmetics.
The beauty mogul developed the line after a ‘scandal’ surrounding the size of her lips. Starting off as a company selling lip-kits, the brand quickly grew and is now an internationally-recognised beauty line, selling everything from said lip-kits, to ‘Kylighters’ (that’s shiny stuff for your face, for those who aren’t familiar).
Whenever Kylie releases a new product, she prepares for an instant sell out. With an extremely loyal and dedicated fan base, Kylie will never be struggling for a market to sell her products to. And as CEO, she has an extremely well thought out business strategy to go by. Kylie doesn’t require the help of advertising - not with her millions of followers on several social networks to instantly promote her brand for free.
The youngest Jenner has always been an avid user of social media, particularly Snapchat and Instagram, where she acquires millions upon millions of followers. This allows her to speak straight to her audience, giving them intimate details of her life, inside gossip on what she’s up to, and most importantly, what’s in the pipeline for Kylie Cosmetics.
Her forward-thinking mindset and determined attitude have together worked in helping her succeed with her beauty line.
But when it was revealed that she is now the youngest ever self-made billionaire, knocking Mark Zuckerberg off the top of the list, many people were sceptical as to how true this actually is.
Yes, she is the CEO of her own company which she has pretty much single-handedly managed but given the fact she had the advantage of a platform reaching out to millions all over the world thanks to her – let’s face it – her older sister Kim’s infamous sex tape, some people are arguing that this title is undeserving (the ‘self-made’ bit, of course).
We all know now how the Kardashian rose to fame and haven’t looked back since. Despite this, there have been many Hollywood scandals that have set off a fire in trending topics that have quickly gone out. The difference with this family is they cleverly played it, so it worked for them.
And at some point, we all need to get over it. It’s 2019, for goodness sake.
Some people are proposing the situation: strip it all back, take away the fame, the platform, the money, and the millions of fans. Would Kylie’s line still be as big as it is now? There are many social media influencers out there with similar businesses that do well, granted, but nowhere near as well as Kylie’s Cosmetics.
The answer is probably no. But the facts remain – Kylie started her business using her own money she had saved from smaller gigs such as modelling as a teenager. She used this money to turn an idea into reality – demonstrating an incredible business mind and vision from a plan she came up with herself.
Surpassing her other sisters in fortune - one being the highest-paid supermodel in the world, another being a household name and owner of a beauty line herself (KKW beauty), and the other two being social media influencers – Khloe also owns her own company, Good American - it’s clear that Kylie perfectly tapped into exactly what her target audience wanted. And that’s because essentially, she was her own target market.
She may have had a step-up thanks to her popularity and platform, but the idea was her own, the business strategies were her own, and the hard-work, dedication and drive were all her own, too.
It’s time that we all got over Kim Kardashian’s ‘famous for being famous’ notoriety, especially when it comes to the reputation of her sisters, who didn’t ask for that situation or the outcome. They simply worked it. And that’s what you call making the most of a situation.
Kylie Jenner is the face of young women in business, the innovators and the inspirations.
Hats off to Kylie – Congrats!
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