Kylie Jenner has become the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, according to Forbes billionaires’ list.
The youngest Kardashian family member is making her fortune from her best-selling cosmetics business.
The 21-year-old founded and owns Kylie Cosmetics, the three-year-old beauty business that generated an estimated $360m in sales last year.
She reached the milestone earlier than Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg who became a billionaire aged 23.
“I didn’t expect anything. I did not foresee the future.
“But [the recognition] feels really good. That’s a nice pat on the back,” Ms Jenner told Forbes.
The list shows Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, remains the world’s richest man.
His fortune totals $131bn, according to Forbes, up $19bn from 2018.
But the billionaires’ combined worth is down from $9.1 trillion at $8.7tn.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth is among those falling.
It has dropped by $8.7bn (£6.6bn) in the past year to $62.3bn, according to the Forbes list.
His shares in Facebook at one point lost a third of their value as the company battled privacy scandals.
Amazon’s share price has been good for Mr Bezos’ bank balance and the gap between him and the number two, Bill Gates, is a little wider, even though Mr Gates’ fortune has swelled to $96.5bn from $90bn last year.
Of all the billionaires on the list only 252 are women, and the richest self-made woman is real estate mogul Wu Yajun of China, worth an estimated $9.4bn.
The number of self-made women reached 72 for the first time, up from 56 a year ago.
The Forbes billionaires list is a snapshot of wealth taken on 8 February 2019. The magazine uses that day’s stock prices and exchange rates from around the world.
According to Forbes there are fewer billionaires around – 2,153 of them on the 2019 list, down from 2,208 in 2018. This, in part, explains why their average net worth is $4bn, down from $4.1bn. Forbes also found that 994 of them are less well off than a year ago.
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Luisa Kroll, assistant managing editor of wealth at Forbes, said: “Even with strong headwinds, resourceful and relentless entrepreneurs find new ways to get rich.”
Story credit: BBC
