Kim Kardashian West Lands Her First Forbes Cover
“#NotBadForAGirlWithNoTalent”
Kim Kardashian West is no stranger to criticism: the reality star has weathered more than her fair share from the haters, but no-one can deny that the girl is good at business. In just nine years, she’s gone from the best friend of Paris Hilton, to a reality TV star with beauty and fragrance lines, a clothing label and multiple endorsement deals, as well as the wife of Kanye West, a mother-of-two and all-round style icon. Oh, and she somehow found the time to create a multi-billion dirham app. The latter is the reason she’s landed herself the latest cover of Forbes magazine, which is focusing on mobile moguls.
Since its release in 2014, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood has been downloaded over 45 million times and has made the star over Dhs165 million in that time. The app’s appeal lies in its “access” to Kim’s life and it frequently updates to reflect it in real time. “The whole idea was to make it feel as live-time as possible,” Kim told the publication. “I would give [Glu, the production company] bikinis and be like, ‘Hurry up and mock this up because I’m going to wear it and then you can have it live in the game!”
She also reveals the struggles she faced in getting people to take her seriously in the tech world. “When people looked at me in a way like, ‘Why is she stepping into the tech world? That’s not her territory! Stick to reality TV!’ I was like, ‘No.’ This is fun for me. Now I’m coming up with Kimojis and the app and all of these other ideas. I don’t see myself stopping.”
Kim posted the cover image on her Instagram, writing about how proud her later father Robert would be at seeing it. And in true Kim style, she rounded out the post with a comical hashtag (and a not-so-subtle dig at her haters) – #NotBadForAGirlWithNoTalent. This is a woman who’s laughing all the way to the bank. – Maddison Glendinning