As a thirteen year old lacrosse player, Rachel Zietz was upset with the low quality lacrosse equipment that she found on the market. Since lacrosse was her favorite sport, she wanted something that would help her perform well, but all the equipment she found was very low quality and way too expensive. As a result, at the young age she was, she decided to start her own business, Gladiator Lacrosse, that would provide the kind of equipment that she wanted to have on the field. As a young, new entrepreneur, she had to figure out how to design and market her products, but it paid of since her business has been a huge success, giving her opportunities to be on “Shark Tank” and specially featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30. Not only has she had those major accomplishments so young in life, but her company is creating millions of dollars in revenue every year. In 2018 at the World Lacrosse Cup, they used Gladiator goals and Gladiator filmed their first commercial for ESPN. This was huge publicity for Gladiator and Rachel had only just graduated high school at the time. A way she was able to expand her company was actually during the COVID 19 pandemic. Surprisingly, people were interested in learning lacrosse at home and so she created special equipment that offered smaller sizes for people to practice at home. Zietz recently graduated college from Princeton having studied business and participated in the club lacrosse team. In an interview she said that it would have been naive of her to skip college and try to figure everything out on her own because even though she already had a profession going into college, she still had so much to learn about running a business. Like many entrepreneurs, Rachel saw a problem and felt the need to fix it with a product, but what is especially inspiring to me about Rachel is that she basically took this business into her own hands at such a young age. I’m sure she had some help, but for the most part, she had to figure all of the ins and outs of running a business by herself. I also liked that even though her business had exploded and been super successful, she was humble enough and recognized that she didn’t have everything figured out and that she needed schooling to help her. That is a great trait to have in an entrepreneur.

Simone Hufana grew up in a household from both Mexican and Filipino backgrounds. However, being at school around primarily white kids and seeing how different she looked from her blonde hair and blue eyed Barbie’s, she began to feel the need to hide her differences and try to fit in among everyone else. She didn’t want to be different and it caused her a lot of insecurity at such a young age. As she grew older, she realized that there were women out there who looked just like her and they were doing extraordinary things to change the world around them. Simone was inspired and wanted to find a way to encourage young girls to embrace their differences, like she wished she had been. Her real inspiration for her coloring book company that promotes women of color were her younger sisters. She wanted them to grow up feeling confident about who they are. At age seventeen she started the business and entered Marshawn Lynch and Shopify’s Beastmode a Business competition and won which provided her with resources to improve her business even more. Even though she is enrolled in college, she is taking a semester off to focus on her business and grow it to an even bigger level. Simone believes she is creating real change in the world through her coloring books, which has always been her main goal. Hearing stories about people’s reaction to the books and how they make them feel better about themselves is always something that inspires her to keep going with it. Simone seems like such a genuine person and it inspires me that she thinks so big. She doesn’t see any limitations and simply thinks, “If they can do it, so can I.” I love seeing how people so young can do such great things if they simply believe they can.

Zolli Candy is a healthy, sugar free candy company that was founded by Alina Morse at only 10 years old. Over the years, this company has only grown to what is now a $6 million business. When Alina was very young, her parents always told her that candy was bad for her teeth, so she was never able to enjoy it when candy was offered to her. This made her question why there couldn’t be healthy candy that doesn’t hurt her teeth, but actually cleans them. Healthy candy was a niche market and very few people, if anyone, had broken into it yet, so, Alina and her dad worked together to build it. What is so inspiring to me about this story is the fact that even at a young age, Alina was thinking about ways to solve problems that she encountered. Even though she was very young, she wasn’t going to let that stop her or let anyone tell her that she couldn’t do it. This story shows me that you never know how big a company could be unless you try to start it. If Alina had simply said “Someone else should invent healthy candy” and left it at that, then someone else would have come along and done just that, making all the sales that Alina could have made. Not only is Alina benefitting financially from the decision she made ten years ago to start her company, but she is inspiring young people all around the world to become entrepreneurs. She also uses her company for good by starting her very own 501(c)(3) called Million Smiles Initiative. This organization gets schools and classrooms on board about teaching kids to take care of their teeth using Zolli Candy. I love that Alina didn’t just stop at Zolli Candy, but expanded her company in order to do even more good. She is clearly a hard worker and passionate about what she does, which are two extremely important things in being an entrepreneur, and it inspires me to want to do the same.