Not all fortunes are created from the same starting point. That’s certainly true for the billionaires on Forbes’ 2026 list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women. Some are born into wealthy or famous families, giving them a headstart. Kim Kardashian, who has made a fortune starting a beauty line and then an ever more successful shapewear brand called Skims, was lucky enough to have both as the daughter of the late Robert Kardashian, a successful lawyer best known for defending his friend O.J. Simpson, and as a star on her family’s eponymous reality TV show, Others are porn into extreme poverty and overcome great odds, like Oprah Winfrey, who was born to a teen mother, grew up without indoor plumbing, was raped by a cousin at age 9 and gave birth at age 14 to a son who died soon after. For surviving and eventually thriving, Winfrey was named the number one greatest living self-made American on the Forbes 250: The Greatest Living Self-Made Americans list – an honor she celebrated with a jig posted to social media. Most of these women grew up somewhere in between as members of the middle or upper-middle class.
As part of our analysis of how these inspiring entrepreneurs, executives and entertainers built companies or careers, Forbes looked at how far each traveled to make it onto the list, and we gave each person a corresponding self-made score. The goal is to provide some context about where these women started out socioeconomically and how many hurdles they had to overcome to reach such lofty heights.
We initially created this scoring system in 2014 for the annual Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, with scores from 1 to 5 indicating that an individual has inherited their wealth and 6 to 10 being gradations of self-made–-which, to us, means someone who created their own fortune, rather than inheriting it. Our list of self-made women, by definition, includes only those who built their wealth, so self-made scores range from 6 to 10. Here’s a breakdown of what each score means.
Self-Made Scores
A breakdown of scores for the 2026 list of America’s Self-Made Women
A score of 6: Hired hand who didn’t create the business. Eleven members of the list have built their fortunes through executive roles, including Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX; Colette Kress, chief financial officer of Nvidia; and Ruth Porat, chief investment officer of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
7: Self-made who got a head start from wealthy parents and a moneyed background. Four list members, including Kim Kardashian and Elizabeth Uihlein, earn this score. Kardashian’s late father Robert was a successful lawyer who is best known for defending his friend O.J. Simpson. Uihlien, meanwhile, grew up on Chicago’s affluent North Shore where her father was an auto executive.
8: Self-made who came from a middle-class or upper-middle-class background. Nearly half the list, eighteen members in all, receive this score, including musician Beyonce Knowles-Carter; health IT and women’s sports mogul Michele Kang; and newcomer Luana Lopes Lara. The youngest member of the list, Lara is the cofounder and chief operating officer of prediction market platform Kalshi.
9: Self-made who came from a largely working-class background; rose from little to nothing. Eight ] women on the list fall into this category. Marian Ilitch, the daughter of Macedonian immigrants, worked in her father’s restaurant and attended community college in Dearborn, Michigan, before cofounding Little Caesars pizza with her husband in 1959. Eren Ozmen and her husband emigrated from Turkey and bought aerospace and defense firm Sierra Nevada Corporation in 1994 through a management buyout. She put herself through business school by selling baklava and cleaning SNC’s office building.
10: Self-made who not only grew up poor but also overcame significant obstacles. Two members of the list receive this score: Oprah Winfrey, who was born to a teen mother in rural Mississippi and grew up without indoor plumbing, and singer and cosmetics entrepreneur Rihanna, who grew up in poverty in Barbados.
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