Sara Blakely, Spanx Founder, Is Youngest Self-Made Female Billionaire

Sara Blakely, the founder of ubiquitous shapewear company Spanx, debuts on one of the covers of Forbes' new Billionaires issue as the youngest self-made woman to earn the big "B" title at age 41.

Florida native Blakely started her first business in 1990: a babysitters' club. But Spanx famously began when Blakely, at age 27, cut the feet off a pair of pantyhose to wear under her cream-colored slacks for their figure-flattering properties. "I needed an undergarment that didn't exist," she told Forbes.

While holding down a day job, Blakely worked tirelessly to build her Spanx empire, shipping items in the wee hours of the morning and aggressively approaching Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus to start

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