Dictionary.com entered the debate over whether Kylie Jenner is a 'self-made' multi-millionaire with a brutal subtweet
- Kylie Jenner is now the 27th-richest self-made woman in the United States, according to a new Forbes cover story.
- Some people questioned Forbes' classification of Jenner as "self-made."
- Dictionary.com entered the debate with a brutal subtweet defining what it means to be "self-made."
As people debate Forbes' decision to put Kylie Jenner on a list of "self-made" billionaires, Dictionary.com is wading into the discourse.
On Wednesday, Forbes released its August 2018 "America's Women Billionaires" issue with Jenner on the cover. The magazine estimates Jenner's net worth to be roughly $900 million, making her the 27th-richest self-made woman in the United States.
"Another year of growth will make her the youngest self-made billionaire ever, male or female, trumping Mark Zuckerberg, who became a billionaire at age 23," Forbes reported.
Discussion around whether Jenner, whose upbringing in ritzy Calabasas was documented on "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," is truly "self-made" quickly exploded. And, Dictionary.com decided to drop the definition of "self-made" at an expertly shady moment.
"Self-made means having succeeded in life unaided," the online dictionary tweeted. "Used in a sentence: Forbes says that Kylie Jenner is a self-made woman."
Jenner's net worth has skyrocketed thanks to the success of Kylie Cosmetics. In a cover story about the 20-year-old multi-millionaire, Forbes conservatively values the company at $800 million, with an estimated $330 million in sales last year. Jenner is both the face of the company and the sole owner.
It is also worth noting that Forbes' "self-made" designation is a bit different than the typical definition. It isn't a value judgement by the publication, but instead a way to distinguish between extremely rich people who inherited wealth and those whose fortune was made primarily in other ways.
"We consider any person who built her own fortune, and didn't inherit the money, to be self-made," Forbes' methodology reads. "So top executives at tech firms who are compensated for helping significantly grow companies make the ranks but not second-generation-women running family businesses."