Timeline: Kylie Jenner’s rise – from gawky teen on Keeping Up With the Kardashians to billionaire Kylie Cosmetics entrepreneur

Dec 15 , 2020

Kylie Jenner has grown up right in front of our eyes. Photo: E! Entertainment, @kyliejenner/Instagram

There’s her US$1 million Chanel and Louis Vuitton handbag collection, her garage filled with Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Rolls-Royces, and her Instagram and TikTok fame – but how exactly did she get from there to here?

Who doesn’t remember watching Ryan Seacrest’s mega-hit TV series Keeping Up With the Kardashians? Even if it was a guilty pleasure or a hate-watch, you have to admit that it was a pioneer of provocative reality shows. The concept behind it – light entertainment peppered with stylish fashion – had millions of viewers lapping it up for over a decade, and it also won numerous Teen Choice and People’s Choice awards. The season four finale in 2010 boasted 4.8 million total viewers. There have also been multiple spin-offs such as Kourtney and Kim Take Miami.

Over the years, many critics have inevitably slammed the show and the sheer idiocy of the family itself; for instance, The Washington Times once said that the series “illustrates our nation [the USA]’s moral, spiritual and cultural decay”.

But all press is good press and, 19 seasons later, the family has collectively amassed a king’s ransom in earnings. The spicy saga of Kris Jenner and her tribe – Kim, Khloé, Kourtney, Rob, Kendall, Kylie and Caitlyn – and their scandalous day-to-day life catapulted them to the heights of global stardom. Even though KUWTK will be coming to an end, the family are still at the forefront of our cultural consciousness as ambassadors for top brands and more.

Kylie Jenner in the beginning. Photo: Luxurylaunches

Kim K might unarguably be the highlight of the show for a variety of reasons, and the original Kardashian trio – Kim, Kourtney and Khloé – might have ruled the roost for many of the early seasons, but Kylie and Kendall Jenner soon caught up. The world watched them grow up on set, going from sprightly preteens to millionaire bombshells. Kendall rose to runway fame as a superstar model and the face of brands like Burberry, while Kylie attained success as a businesswoman and the controversial “world’s youngest self-made billionaire”.

Here’s a walk down memory lane charting exactly how Kylie got to where she is today.

Kendall and Kylie Jenner on the cover of Seventeen magazine in 2012. Photo: Luxurylaunches

A timeline of her achievements:

2007-2012: Kylie’s journey might have begun with her as a gawky recurring cast member on KUWTK, but over the years she and Kendall became global icons. Seventeen magazine hailed them as style stars of the year in 2011, and they appeared in music videos for the likes of Jaden Smith, penned dystopian science fiction novels Rebels: City of Indra and its sequel, and won the hearts of millions of star-struck teens worldwide.