Kylie Jenner has a commanding presence on social media, with 222 million followers on Instagram and an additional 37 million plus on Twitter. Recently, she used her ability to get eyeballs on content to bring awareness to Samuel Rauda, a makeup artist who works with mom Kris Jenner and half-sister Khloe Kardashian, and who recently needed emergency brain surgery. Her Instagram Stories post subsequently sparked a conversation, but probably not one the Keeping up with the Kardashians star was intending.
Samuel Rauda was in what many suspect to have been an accident last weekend. On Sunday, March 14, the Hollywood makeup artist, 26, underwent emergency brain surgery. Subsequently, a GoFundMe account was set up by the Rauda family to help recoup the costs of such an expensive surgery, one the young man and his family were not prepared to take on. Kylie Jenner publicly donated $5,000 dollars to the account and then shared information to her Instagram Stories this week, but some fans think her whole attitude toward Samuel Rauda’s accident was tone deaf.
And a lot of people were unafraid to share their thoughts about what Kylie Jenner -- an alleged billionaire -- was doing asking average people to donate money to someone if it was an issue or person she clearly had a connection with. Suffice to say, people did not hold back with their responses:
If you think the idea of making $450,000 a day is a lot to compute, another Twitter user did the math even further to break down how little it would have cost Kylie Jenner to actually go out on a limb and help out Rauda in a more meaningful way.
Or, as another fan put it, Kylie Jenner spent more on accessories for her little one than she did to help a person who worked on makeup for her famous family.
Look, I’m sure a person with a lot of wealth is getting requests for money all the time, and Kylie didn’t have to donate $5K or bring awareness to Samuel Rauda’s surgery and medical costs at all, but the bigger problem for some of the people who saw her posts was the way she asked for money from average people.
This Oprah meme from a post with a similar sentiment really says it all though…
The good news is that Rauda’s recovery will seemingly have a happy ending. Initially, $60,000 was being raised for the young makeup artist, and that goal was extended to $120,000 after the donations began pouring in. At the time of this writing, the GoFundMe has raised over $97,000 to aid Rauda in recovery and help to pay for medical costs. A week following the accident, organizer Johanna Portillo shared about Sam:
It has been a week since Sam’s accident. It has not been easy. In the midst of it all, Sam continues to fight, showing us how strong he truly is. Please continue to send prayers his way
Kylie Jenner bringing awareness to the accident likely played a role in so many people seeing the GoFundMe in the first place, but I’m not sure the whole thing had the impact she intended.
