Rihanna has officially become the youngest self-made billionaire woman in the US, after accumulating a net worth of $1.4bn by age 34. The Fenty Beauty founder, who has featured on Forbes’ annual list of America’s richest self-made women for three years in a row, came in 21st place on this year’s list.
Although Rihanna is not the wealthiest self-made woman in the US – an achievement that goes to 75-year-old businesswoman Diane Hendricks – she is the youngest, with Kim Kardashian, 41, who has a net worth of $1.8bn, coming in as the second-youngest billionaire on the 2022 list. According to Forbes, the Barbados native is a billionaire due to the success of her cosmetics line, which she co-owns with French luxury retailer LVMH, and which “generated more than $550m in revenue in 2020”.
While Fenty Beauty “comprises the majority of her fortune,” it is far from Rihanna’s only source of income, as the outlet notes that the nine-time Grammy winner also earns a significant amount from her music career and her lingerie brand, Savage x Fenty, which “raised money at a $1bn valuation in February 2021”. Rihanna currently has a 30 per cent stake in the company.
As for her status as a self-made billionaire, Forbes has given Rihanna a “self-made score” of 10, a ranking the outlet explains ranges from one to 10 and indicates how much of one’s fortune they have inherited or built on their own. According to Forbes, a ranking of one through five indicates “someone who inherited some or all of his or her fortune,” while scores six through 10 “are for those who built their company or established a fortune on his or her own”.
The entrepreneur, who is the only billionaire under 40 on this year’s list, is likely to continue building her empire, as she previously told The New York Times that a “number is not going to stop” her from continuing to work. “I never thought I’d make this much money, so a number is not going to stop me from working,” Rihanna told the outlet in 2019.
Kylie Jenner, who was previously named Forbes youngest self-made billionaire in 2018 before the title was taken away, is the youngest on Forbes’ latest list of America’s richest self-made women. According to the 2022 list, the 24-year-old Kylie Cosmetics founder, while not a billionaire, is ranked in 41st place with a net worth of $600m.
