Voted "Most Like Estée" by the other Lauders, Aerin is considered the public face of her grandmothers cosmetics brand, and is handsomely compensated for her work—with a family fortune estimated at 3.2 billion— she is one of the world's richest heiresses.

The granddaughter of beauty mogul Estée Lauder (the Queens native who started the family cosmetics company from her kitchen sink in 1946), Aerin is the daughter of Ronald Lauder and Jo Carole Lauder. Aerin was raised on Park Avenue in New York City (with stints in Washinton D.C. and Vienna), and followed in the Lauder family tradition of attending the University of Pennsylvania. Shortly after graduating, she joined the family cosmetics company, getting her start in product marketing. She quickly moved up in the ranks and took over as marketing chief in the late 1990s. While some smell nepotism in the Youth Dew, Aerin (and the rest of the employed Lauders) have garnered attention for being a new breed of hardworking socialites.

Now Estée Lauder's senior vice president and creative director, she's one of the most influential execs at the beauty giant, with broad responsibility over the company's public image. (It was Aerin, for example, who selected Gwenyth Paltrow and Liya Kebede as spokesmodels.) In 2007, she stepped even further into the spotlight when she appeared as the face of the company's new fragrance line, Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia, and opened a boutique at Bergdorfs. Most recently, Lauder announced she would be branching out with her own luxury lifestyle brand, receiving guidance from heavy-hitters Anna Wintour and NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker.

On top of her rigorous career, Aerin has been a major social presence in the city for more than a decade. Her ascension to the very top of the social pecking order was confirmed when, at age 29, she became co-chair of the Met's Museum of Art's Costume Institute gala, a position once held by Jackie O. Furthermore, she's a ubiquitous presence at galas around town for causes like the ABT, the Neue Gallerie (the museum her father founded), and the Museum of Modern Art.

In 1996 Aerin married her college sweetheart, Eric Zinterhofer, who founded Searchlight Capital Partners (private equity, duh) in 2010. They have two sons, Will and Jack.

[Image via Getty]