Black Excellence: Child Entrepreneurs Edition
Leena Archer
Company:Leanna’s Inc
At 9 years old Leena launched her own line of natural hair-care products. Her great-grandmother in Haiti had a special recipe for hair pomade, and Archer used that recipe to begin a line of oils, hairdressings, and conditioners. Now, at 17, she handles more than 350 online orders a week, and generates more than $100,000 in revenue every year.
Moziah Bridges
Company: Mo’s Bow’s
Moziah Bridges started in Memphis, TN in 2011 at 9 years old. He couldn’t find fun and cool bow ties, so he decided to use he’s grandma’s scrap fabric to make and sell his own. Mo says “I like to wear bow ties because they make me look good and feel good. Designing a colorful bow tie is just part of my vision to make the world a fun and happier place”.
You might recognize him from being on Shark Tank recently where he did not get a investment deal, but did make a mentoring partnership with Daymond John, who thought he was doing well without taking on the risk of investors. Since then, Mo’s Bow’s rakes in over $150k a year and was just picked up by Neiman Marcus to be sold in stores worldwide.
Mikaila Ulmer
Company: Bee Sweet Lemonade
Mikaila Ulmer got started selling Lemonade at the age of 4 when she found her grandmother’s old recipe books which included one for Flaxseed Lemonade from the 1940s, close to this time she was also stung by a bee. Mikaila explain that she then became fascinated with bees and learned all about what they do for her and our ecosystem. So she thought about what if she made something that helps honeybees and uses my Great Granny Helen’s recipe? And well, Bee Sweet Lemonade was born. Mikalika sells her lemonade wherever she can and takes great pride in donating a percentage of her sales to both local and global organizations that are fighting to help save the bees.
Mikaila also appeared on Shark Tank this past season, and received a 60k investment from Daymond John and is now being sold in whole food market across the country.
Jaylen Bledsoe
Company: Bledsoe Technologies
Jaylen started his own tech company that specializes in web design and other IT services, Bledsoe Technologies, when he was just 13 years old. Now at 16 years old, Jaylen’s company has expanded and grown into a 3.5 MILLION dollar global enterprise. Jaylen has grown his company from two workers to about 150 contracted employees in order to meet demand.
Maya Penn
Company: Maya’s Ideas
Founded when she was 8 years old. Penn is an entrepreneur, a technologist, a philanthropist, an artist, an author, an animator and a coder, as cited by Tech Republic. Maya’s Ideas is a site where she sells eco-friendly clothing and accessories, like scarves, hats and hair clips.
She started the business because she liked sewing headbands, and people started asking her to make them. She began selling them on Etsy, but quickly realized she could build a brand of her own. And, this is more than just a cute idea — Maya’s Ideas generated more than $30,000 in 2012 and has been growing since.
Chental-Song Bembry
Company: The Honey Bunch Kids
Chental-Song created the company Honeybunch Kids at 14 because she is motivated to provide books to kids between the ages of 7 and 12 that will keep them entertained but also teach them. She also wants to launch a literacy campaign to get more kids to learn to love reading. She sold 500 books last year and is hoping to double that this year. The Honey Bunch Kids story tells the tale of a group of black middle-school children who become friends after they miss the bus on their first day and end up having to walk to school in the rain. She is currently working on finishing the 3rd book in the series.
Umar Brimah
Company: Yumazu Anime Shop
Umar is the owner of his own anime store called Yumazu Anime Shop in Missouri. His mother made a $10,000 investment for him to open the store. It is hard to find anime stuff in stores so he is hoping to open a chain of stores that will allow people to find a cheaper alternative to buying anime collections as opposed to paying huge prices online.
Brea and Halle Holmes
Company: Sweet Dream Girlz
After a disappointing shopping trip to find naturally made beauty products for tweens and teens, this sister duo decided to launch their own, Sweet Dream Girlz. Now 14 and 20, their natural beauty brand has expanded to shoes and clothing. Sweet Dream Girlz has been seen in USA Today, Bloombergs Businessweek, Girls Life Magazine and celebrity endorsed by several teen, tweens and mothers. The naturally made beauty products are filled with shea butter and natural oils. And, free from harmful ingredients such as paraben and talc. The body product fragrances smell almost good enough to eat. The facial products teach girls that it is essential to learn good skin care habits at their age.
12 year old Zuriel Oduwole, who lives in California, but was born in Nigeria, and who happens to be, not only a political journalist and interviewer, but is currently the youngest professional working filmmaker in the world today. She started at the age of 9, interviewing presidents and prime ministers in Kenya, Liberia, South Sudan and Jamaica among other countries, and celebrities, such as the Williams sisters. And, on top of that, she is still, to date, the youngest person in the world to be featured in Forbes Africa, was named one of the world’s 100 most powerful individuals by Business Insider magazine, invited to attend the African Union’s 50th anniversary conference, selected as Global Brand Ambassador for Ethiopian Airlines, and Heritage Bank’s Financial Literacy Ambassador in Nigeria.
Her feature documentary, “A Promising Africa,” her fourth one to date, was released last November at the Film House Cinema theater chain in Lagos, and will open this month in London. This makes her currently the youngest filmmaker in the world to have her film shown in a commercial movie theater
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