Kylie Jenner: the self-made woman

Hmm. Until reading that article, I was barely aware of who Kylie Jenner was. But... now let me take a contrarian view.


I actually find this... pretty damn impressive.

Let's start with what she's actually leveraging. She didn't become super-popular and build this business just by being pretty. Look at those pictures. She certainly benefits from having won the genetic lottery (she's got model-like looks, she's the daughter of an Olympic athlete and half-sister of a famous celebrity clan), so yeah, she's not entirely self-made. She had a lot of celebrity and capital behind her when she started, an advantage most entrepreneurs don't have.

But she is obviously very, very skilled at putting together a look. She knows makeup. She knows fashion. And she knows what appeals to her customers. And fashion and makeup are big business. Do those of us (particularly male) who don't really care about makeup and fashion find it a little silly that this is a billion-dollar empire? Sure, but what makes it so different from professional sports? Why should millions of people care so much about two teams of men throwing a ball around that it generates billions of dollars and makes millionaires out of everyone talented enough to be good at throwing a ball around?

Kylie Jenner, it seems to me, has a talent, a killer eye, and great business instincts. The description above of her relatively lean operation that's pumping cash into her pocket like an Alaskan oil pipeline? If she were a guy selling watches or high-end electronics or something with a similar operation, I think Forbes wouldn't be writing about her with a barely-concealed smirk. Mark Zuckerberg got rich building a social media network for nerdy college students. She got rich building a cosmetics empire for young girls. This isn't just someone who got famous on Instagram and makes money off of being famous.

If you come from a hugely wealthy and famous family, by definition you are not self-made, IMO. You did something with the opportunities and advantages that arose from your immense privilege rather than sitting on your ass partying, but you are not self-made.

We're pretty much in agreement on the majority of these points. I was just pointing out that I believe her mother is the business savvy mogul behind the capitalistic juggernaut that is the Kardashian brand and not Kylie. You could probably get more neurons firing in a big ball of dryer lint than you could from Kylie.

That being said, I understand why people have disdain for people who have nothing that could reasonably be considered talent somehow becoming outrageously famous and wealthy through nothing that most people would consider hard work or intelligence (e.g., pretty much every Kardashian, Logan and Jake Paul, Nickelback, etc.). But, the fact that they have some sort of appeal to legions of people with questionable taste yet pocketfuls of disposable income, and the fact that they are able to capitalize on that appeal to make shit-loads of money is something I can respect.

I sometimes wouldn't mind being a rich-yet-talentless hack.

I'm pretty sure that Rob, Amadan, and myself have all acknowledged this?


Maybe I missed it, but did someone here make the claim that Kris released the sex tape?

You seem to be confusing or conflating "intelligence / business savvy" with "hard work." In my opinion, the two are orthogonal traits (i.e., they are mostly separate). I don't doubt that Kylie works hard to maintain her completely manufactured public image (I use the term "work hard" loosely, though). But, again, her mother is the one with the business connections and has worked as their business manager for the entirety of all of their careers. She is the one who is mostly responsible for crafting the Kardashian image and brand. And, it's obvious that she's damn good at it.

I seriously doubt that Kylie, as a 16 or 17 year old kid (when she first entered the limelight and started her business career) was well-versed in the intricacies of supply chain logistics, manufacturing and production, and running a business in general. Do you think it's more likely that Kylie was a precocious, natural-born business genius with innate knowledge of how to build a multi-million dollar business empire, or is it more likely that a bunch of teen girls knew about her because of the show, liked her because she's hot and liked her style and that Kris, her mother and professional business manager with decades of experience in this, then came up with fantastic ways to monetize Kylie's popularity and capitalize off of the qualities that Kylie's fans admired, just like she'd already done with her other 4 daughters (especially given that she'd already started cosmetics and merchandising companies for her other daughters)?

Given the Kylie was a child when she started her business, and that she comes off as being about as dumb as a rock, I think it's much more likely that Kris was and is the driving creative and business-minded force behind Kylie's cosmetics. Kylie is the face, Kris is the brains (further evidence of this is that several of the Kardashian clan's separate businesses have been sued for copyright infringment b/c they ripped off other people's work. For that same mistake to have been made in similar ways in at least 3 of the daughter's companies suggests to me that the same person or team was making the decisions for each (i.e., Kris)).

To wit:



www.businessinsider.com/kris-jenner-stay-at-home-mom-to-millionaire-manager-2015-5

That does not at all imply that Kylie does not work "hard" putting on make-up, pouting her fake lips, sticking out her fake tits, and posting selfies on Instagram each day (well, "work hard" relative to that type of job. That version of "hard work" does not come close to actual hard work like that of ER docs, construction workers, firemen, or line cooks in restaurants, in my opinion but YMMV).

But, that kind of "hard work" doesn't require brains or business savvy or much business knowledge at all. Kylie leaves that up to her mom (and I doubt she ever had a choice to begin with). Without Kris, Kylie and her sisters would likely have never had careers at all. Kylie might work hard (in some people's eyes, I suppose), but her mother is both smart AND works hard.

That's the difference.

I'm not hating on her success. I'm just a) pointing out that it came relatively easy to her, given the golden ticket of a situation she was born into and the fact that looking hot on social media is not a difficult job compared to actual difficult jobs; b) that she's not smart enough to have accomplished any of this herself and; c) somewhat lamenting the fact that our society rewards such vacuous dreck with obscene amounts of wealth when there are other people out there doing work and living lives that are arguably objectively much more important to society but who will never get that kind of credit, wealth, or fame for it.

However, as I've said, that's the system we live in and I don't really fault people who take full advantage of it in order to achieve success.