Some Nigerians, alongside millions of social media users, have reacted to Forbes recent ranking of reality star, Kylie Jenner as the youngest self-made billionaire.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 21-year-old Jenner, on Tuesday, beat Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who topped the list at 23 in 2008, to clinch the highly controversial title.
Jenner has amassed a personal net worth of $1billion through her wildly successful range of make-up, Kylie Cosmetics.
Her ranking, however, has been met with mixed reactions on social media as users are especially concerned about Forbes interpretation of ‘self-made’.
@Ade07u said, “Chill with that ‘self-made’, I am not trying to rain on her parade but I am pretty sure her family name had something to do with her success.”
@Iambitious wrote, “Self-made people do not even have platforms, they have to build it themselves.”
@Quasahr said, “I wouldn’t classify her as self-made though. If she hadn’t been in the spotlight and had to start from scratch, I doubt she would have gone this far in a short time.
“Nevertheless, its remarkable hat she built something successful off her fame.”
@Valeriepeach said, “She has done well for herself, very commendable but Kylie is not self-made.”
Also, Dictionary.com challenged reports that describe Jenner as a “self-made” billionaire.
The site tweeted a response to a Forbes report on Tuesday saying, “Haven’t we gone over this?”
It provided a definition of the term by tweeting, “Self-made: Having succeeded in life unaided.”
Meanwhile, Forbes, on Tuesday, explained its meaning of ‘self-made’ on its official website following the backlash of its recent list.
“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.
“As long as the list member didn’t inherit a business or money, she is labelled self-made.
“But the term is very broad, and does not adequately reflect how far some people have come and, relatively speaking, how much easier others have had it,” Forbes wrote.
The magazine explained the scoring system it introduced in 2014 and showed Jenner’s score in comparison to others who made the list.
“Based on that scale, someone who inherited everything scores a 1, while someone who not only grew up poor but also experienced substantial hardships – like Oprah Winfrey – scores a 10.
“Kylie Jenner, who comes from a wealthy family and who has leveraged her fame to her advantage, ranks a 7,” Kerry Dolan wrote for Forbes.
Jenner is the youngest in her famous, reality TV family, the Kardashians and the first to hit the billion dollar landmark.
She was surprised by the success of her cosmetics company which was only founded in 2015 but is now worth an estimated $900million.
Jenner, who owns a 100 percent stake in it, has separate income from endorsements and her family’s reality TV show. She also owns an impressive portfolio of real estate.
NAN
