ETI celebrates America’s richest self-made women under 50

More women are creating new businesses and amassing fortunes than ever before. As a result, Forbes has expanded their ranking of the nation’s wealthiest self-made women to 80 ceiling crashers, one third more than a year ago.

Each of these overachievers has blazed her own trail. Some, like the entrepreneurs behind toilet spray Poo-Pourri and vegan makeup line Thrive Causemetics, created fresh products while others like Belinda Johnson, Airbnb’s chief operating officer, joined tech juggernauts as they were taking flight. Still others, including musician and beauty entrepreneur Rihanna and reality TV star-turned makeup mogul Kylie Jenner, have figured out ways to monetize their fame, fans and social media followers. At the top of the ranks for the second year in a row is Diane Hendricks, who added $2.1 billion to her net worth in the past year, thanks to record sales of $10.5 billion at her roofing giant, ABC Supply.

I want to be in the infrastructure.
I want to be the brand, instead of just being the face.

Serena Williams

List members range in age from 21 to 92, and are worth a combined $81.3 billion. The minimum net worth to make Forbes’ fifth annual ranking of these women is $225 million. A record 25 are billionaires, one more than last year. Nearly half, or 38, live in California, followed by New York with 9. Nineteen were born outside of the U.S., in countries spanning Burma to Barbados.

	Rank	Name	Net Worth	Age	Source	State
	#23	Kylie Jenner	$1 B	21	cosmetics	California
	#60	Taylor Swift	$360 M	29	music	Tennessee
	#72	Whitney Wolfe Herd	$290 M	29	Dating App	Texas
	#74	Karissa Bodnar	$275 M	29	cosmetics	California
	#37	Rihanna	$600 M	31	Cosmetics, Music	California
	#60	Neha Narkhede	$360 M	34	software	California
	#36	Huda Kattan	$610 M	35	cosmetics	–
	#55	Katrina Lake	$380 M	36	Online Retail	California
	#51	Beyoncé Knowles	$400 M	37	music	California
	#80	Serena Williams	$225 M	37	Tennis	California

	#57	Kim Kardashian West	$370 M	38	cosmetics, reality TV	California
	#47	Jamie Kern Lima	$440 M	41	cosmetics	California
	#77	Reese Witherspoon	$240 M	43	Entertainment	California
	#35	Marissa Mayer	$620 M	44	Google, Yahoo	California
	#33	Anne Wojcicki	$690 M	45	DNA testing	California
	#40	Kendra Scott	$550 M	45	jewelry	Texas
	#49	Adi Tatarko	$430 M	46	home design	California
	#75	Toni Ko	$270 M	46	cosmetics	California
	#38	Theresia Gouw	$580 M	47	venture capital	California
	#23	Sara Blakely	$1 B	48	Spanx	Georgia
Honorable Mentions
	#12	Sheryl Sandberg	$1.7 B	49	Facebook	California
	#44	Susan Wojcicki	$490 M	50	Google	California
	#46	Celine Dion	$450 M	51	music	Nevada
	#29	Tory Burch	$850 M	52	fashion	New York
	#42	Carolyn Rafaelian	$520 M	52	jewelry	Rhode Island
	#63	Belinda Johnson	$330 M	52	Airbnb	California
	#69	Ashley Chen	$300 M	52	IT	Virginia
	#62	Liz Elting	$350 M	53	translation services	New York
	#66	Jessica Iclisoy	$310 M	53	baby products	California
	#77	Suzy Batiz	$240 M	54	bathroom spray	Texas

To compile net worths, we valued individual assets, including stakes in public companies, using stock prices from May 3. We valued private companies by consulting with outside experts and conservatively comparing them with public companies. To be eligible for the list, women have to have substantially made their own fortunes in the U.S. and/or be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Kylie Jenner’s inclusion in the ranks a year ago set off a heated internet debate about the meaning of “self-made.” Forbes uses the term to describe anyone who built or earned a fortune as opposed to inheriting it. Obviously all successful entrepreneurs and executives get help along the way from cofounders, investors, customers and employees. Some climbed farther and overcame more obstacles to get into the ranks. To measure just how far some have come, women are given a self-made score of 6 (hired hand) to 10 (rags-to-riches entrepreneur). We attempted to vet numbers with all list entrants. Some cooperated, others didn’t.