E! Entertainment/"Rich Kids of Beverly Hills"
Dorothy Wang is one of the breakout stars from the hit E! reality show, "
Rich Kids of Beverly Hills," which recently wrapped its second season.
In both her
Twitter and
Instagram bios, Dorothy describes herself as "
Funemployed and Fabuluxe!"
But if you watch the show or follow Dorothy on social media, the 26-year-old billionaire heiress seems to have many jobs (real estate agent! jewelry designer! reality TV star!), so we asked the USC graduate about the current state of her "funemployment."
"Funemployed has gotten a bad wrap," Dorothy tells Business Insider. "It actually means just enjoying what you do, it doesn't mean being unemployed and fun. It's enjoying your job, being passionate, having fun with what you're doing."
She adds, "Right now I'm doing my jewelry line, so I'm more funemployed than usual."
"Funemployed" and "fabuluxe" are just a few of the terms Dorothy has coined on "Rich Kids." Her hybrid words became so popular, in fact, that she turned them into a jewelry line.
"All hashtags that I've said on the show" have now been turned into gold-plated necklaces that read words likes #Fabuluxue, #NoFilter, and #Rich.
Wang sells the necklaces on her website DorothyWang.com and promotes the designs on her popular social media accounts:
Wang hand signs each necklace and is busy stuffing envelopes herself:
Part of why Wang pushes herself to continue building her brand is because she wants to follow in her father's successful footsteps.
hulu.com/E! Entertainment
Dorothy says her billionaire dad inspires her to work harder.
"For me and my sister, when you have a parent who is so successful, it makes everyone kind of watch you a little closer," says Dorothy. "Even if you do something great, people assume it's because my dad helped me or my dad paid for it."
But that wasn't the case for Dorothy landing a leading role on the E! reality show, which she didn't even tell her dad about until right before she had to sign the contract.
"It was important for me to do the show and get it on the air, on my own, and I didn't even tell my dad about it so no one could say anything like that," Dorothy admits. "He didn't invest anything in it, he didn't even know about it. And so that was important for me to have for myself as well to carve my own path, which is very different from my dad's. But I can turn this into a business, just not in the traditional sense like my father's, but I think it can be just as successful in another way."
In the future, Dorothy says, "I want to do it all."
"I love showcasing my life on TV," she says, but has many other interests, too. "I love fashion, I love jewelry. I want to do everything that's relevant in my life, I want to do more products. I love to cook and bake, so maybe one day I would do a cookbook and come out with a matching apron line, I love robes and all of that luxury, I want to do T-shirts, and design my own purse. I want to do more TV projects, more hosting."
But, Dorothy says, "My dad now wants me to have a talk show, so I have to balance what he wants me to do with what I want to do."
In the meantime, Dorothy is working on growing her fan base. Before the show aired, she had 26,000 followers on Instagram. Today, Dorothy has 561,000 followers and counting, with a big part of her following based in Asia.
"I have a big following in China, Taiwan, and actually all throughout Asia. In the countries that the show plays in, they all love it," says the fluent Chinese speaker. "I think a lot of Asians and Asian Americans are just so excited to see someone with an Asian face on television. And I think it's important to have someone in pop culture who represents a whole part of the world that has somewhat gone unrepresented in the industry."
