Living in San Francisco california, Emma Chamberlain was by no means the cliche 16-year-old girl. slShe was kind of quirky and odd which led her to get bullied and not enjoy school as much as she should have. however with supportive parents, Emma Chamberlain turned to the camera for attention and started her YouTube channel when she was 16. She continued to go to high school for around a year, however as a bullying continued, she switched to online school and began to focus more on her YouTube channel. She was not well liked in school, however on the YouTube platform Emma exploded. Creating quirky, off the books content Emma was a very niche influencer which allowed her to gain many followers. Many young girls and adolescents were able to relate to her content and loved to follow her life and see what she was doing. Emma when she turns 17 move to LA, to build her career and brand. with over 8 million followers Emma’s fanbase continued to grow however she was starting to be noticed by many fashion companies. In 2018 she attended her first Louis Vuitton fashion show, and filmed the whole process on her YouTube channel. This was a new area of content for YouTube but it started a new trend for influencers. Emma continued to be a spokesperson for Louis Vuitton over the years and still is to this day. Throughout this time Emma has always had a passion for coffee. In the last 2 years she has started to curate her own coffee company and it just launched and is called Chamberlain coffee. She has also formed a merch and fashion company and is continually looking for new business ventures. Emma is a very influential person in the social media and YouTube space, and shows each day that anyone who tries hard enough can pursue their dreams and make a career out of it. Even though they might have been bullied or told that they were not going to amount to anything. Truly inspiring.

Beginning at the age of 15, Ethan and Grayson Dolan began their careers on Vine a video production app. During this time Vine was a very viral app that all youth were engaged on period it seemed as though the Dolan twins (what their fan base called them) we’re very popular among the users on the app. Each had their own accounts, but as they grew they merged them together to become the Dolan twins. When this app started to lose popularity, each twin decided to start their own Instagram accounts and a joint YouTube channel. Soon their YouTube channel became one of the most popular on the platform and their fear of losing popularity in the limelight dissipated. Over the next few years the Dolan twins continue to gain popularity, and expand their brand as they grew. In 2017 the Dolan twins began their Dolan twins tour and were able to tour hundreds of different cities and many different countries around the world . However during this time, they found out that their father was diagnosed with a very severe stage of cancer. This was a minor setback for them but they allowed it to motivate them to strive to succeed more and so their father how much he taught him as they grew up and wanted him to be proud of them. Sadly their father died in 2018 but this allowed for the Dolan twins to begin a new era of their brand. Stopping daily vlogs and silly videos, they started to shift towards a more serious content and produce less videos at a higher quality. They also started their fragrance company called wakehart and candles and other products were sold. Now at the age of 20 the Dolan twins have amassed over 15 million followers on YouTube as well as only multiple different companies, and are looking into beginning new ventures for their brand period one of these is their new podcast called deeper with the Dolan twins as well as expanding their candle and fragrance company and are starting to include clothing and other fashion lines. The Dolan twins are a prime example of youth entrepreneurs, and they show every day how young kids with a dream can make anything happen!

Ever since he could remember, Luke Gilligan was always an entrepreneur. From making lemonade stands to selling head rubs at family reunions, business was always in his back of his mind. When Luke was an eighth grader, he knew that he wanted to pursue entrepreneurship in some form or fashion, so he decided to attend a public school that allowed many opportunities and business classes. Surprisingly enough, it was his English class that inspired him to start his first business. That summer, Luke was lucky enough to attend the teenage Entrepreneurship academy which was an international entrepreneurship competition in Orange County, California. Over eight countries represented and he was one of 50 students that were allowed to participate. During this competition he learned how to run, start, and organize a business as well as compete in front of real investors for a chance of starting a business venture. Luke , was elected CEO of his team, and they were lucky enough to go on and win second in the competition. That summer gave him the knowledge, but also motivation to go and pursue his own business venture at home. Then when he attended freshman year of high school he was in a English class where the teacher showed a video of a young boy using his talents to help a local hospital in need. Luke has always been a crafty person and was truly inspired by this video. This is what started Huggable Happiness corporation. Luke knew that in Fishers, Indiana, there were not very many opportunities for teenagers like him to learn how to run a business. So, after forming a board and getting a few members involved Luke founded his first nonprofit called Huggable Happiness corporation. The mission of this corporation was to influence, inspire, and inform teenagers to make a tangible impact on society through philanthropic and entrepreneurial means. With Huggable Happiness Luke would teach kids how to use their talents and gifts and start programs that benefited the community in a charitable way period some of these projects included cuddly copies which were handsome pillow cases stuff with toys that were donated to local children’s hospitals and other projects such as Serving Impoverished Children in Indiana (S.I.C.I) which provided meals and lunches for underserved impoverished children that wouldn’t get them otherwise. This program became a large program which was soon adopted by the government of indiana. Once Luke turned 18, he decided to turn the nonprofit over to new leadership and pursue college in which he would study entrepreneurship at Grove City college. However, during this time Luke also ran a consulting company in which he was a technical editor and designer for many fashion companies designers including Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Tommy Hilfiger. He was also very involved in the handknitwear industry and was asked by Vogue and Vogue knitting to be in their magazines and also headline conferences, teaching many classes for them. Over the course of high school, Luke amassed over 200 clients and grew his technical editing company into a very profitable business. Wool Enthusiast company, has continued to grow and has started to focus on creating professional men’s knitwear patterns and designs. Luke is always looking for a new business opportunity, but currently he’s focusing on the fiber industry and growing his fan base. With around 2.5 thousand followers he has started to gain a name in the knitting industry and hopes to pursue that in the future.

www.woolenthusiast.com

As teens, we all have a dream of on our 16th birthday walking outside to a brand new car in the driveway. Bella Weems-Lambert, just like all of us, had that dream; however, she wanted to make sure that her dream became a reality. At the age of 14 Bella decided to use her crafting abilities to make jewelry and sell them to her friends and family. Bellas jewelry was unique because it was customizable. Her first product was a locket. Bella had a base locket but then she let people pick and choose tiny charms and accessories to put into their lockets, making them 100% customizable to the customer. This hobby soon became much larger than she predicted. After selling thousands of lockets, Bella started to realize that people wanted to share her lockets with friends and family as well. So, in 2010, her company became a social selling company called Origami Owl. As a social selling company, she had thousands of different “designers” as she called them who owned their own independent Origami Owl business and would receive commissions from each sale. Bella’s mission for Origami Owl is for people “to be a force for good; to love, inspire and motivate people of all ages to reach their dreams and empower them to make a difference in the lives of others.” She does this by empowering their designers, teaching them business skills, and allowing them to impact their local community.

Bella achieved her dream of getting her first car, but she has also has impacted and bettered the lives of thousands of people. We all should learn from Bella. She is the prime example of how a hobby can become a very successful business, but also she shows us that we should always look for opportunities where we can use our business to impact and use it to be “a force for good.”

Bella and her first car!

Haile Thomas, is 19 years old. Amazingly, as a 19-year-old she has accomplished far more than any of us would imagine doing in a lifetime! As the youngest individual to graduate from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, she has become a world-renowned speaker, wellness and nutrition coach, author, compassion activist, and the CEO of a non-profit called HAPPY. HAPPY stands for Healthy, Active, Positive, Purposeful, Youth. When she was just 12 she founded this nonprofit to address the need for affordable or free plant-based nutrition for at-risk communities. She does this through holistic and wellness education to teens around the world, emphasizing plant-based nutrition. She has reached around 90,000 teens and that number is continually growing. Why did she want to start HAPPY? Well, like many entrepreneurs, she noticed a need in the community. When she was young, her family successfully reversed her father’s type 2 diabetes. Throughout this process she started to notice that other students are being affected or diagnosed with conditions like her father… so she decided to change that. Obviously, she has achieved her dream; however, she continues to strive to impact as many youths as she can. She is a speaker at many famous venues such as TEDx and Good Morning America and has partnered with many companies such as Williams and So

noma, Nike, Hyatt Hotels, and many more. Haile is truly an inspiration. She has shown me what determination to a cause looks like and how personal passion can cause a rippling impact on society.

If you are interested in learning more, here is the website I used to learn more about Haile: https://www.hailevthomas.com/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDMNfG-gU_w/

Let Me Introduce You to Jonah Larson:

12-year-old, Jonah Larson is a young entrepreneur from Wisconsin that has taken his passion for crocheting and turned it into a crocheting empire known as “Jonah’s Hands.” Jonah began crocheting when he was 5 when he taught himself the whole process. A few years later, he started to become well known for his speed and the complexity of the pieces that he created and sold under the company “Handmade by Jonah’s Hands” which was extremely successful. Soon, Jonah was featured in many publications such as the New York Times, Forbes, USA Today, Oprah Magazine, and many others. Recently he was also featured on the Kelly Clarkson Show, Little Big Shots with Mellissa McCarthy, and the Drew Barrymore Show. Jonah has started to design his own patterns and currently has 2 publications available: “Hello Crochet Friends Book” and “Giving Back Crochet with Jonah Larson”. Seeing, that he is 12 and has professionally published 2 books is mind-blowing, however, he continues to impact the fiber community in many ways. He currently has a YouTube channel with 61,000 subscribers, Instagram with over 266K, and many crochet CDs and tutorials partnering with companies such as Vogue Knitting, Annie’s Crafts, and Craftsy.  To say that he is successful is an understatement.

Jonah’s entrepreneurial mindset and passion for Crocheting is truly unique and amazing; however, his philanthropic mindset is even more inspiring.  Jonah is adopted and has always wanted to go back to his village in Ethiopia and give back, and he has. Jonah has partnered with Roots Ethiopia which is an Ethiopian based 501c3 that works to improve schools, educate children, and enable livelihoods. Jonah raised close to $30,000 and with his partnership with Roots, he was able to fully fund and build a library in his hometown. Now, he continues his philanthropic endeavors and is raising money to fund a science lab as well.

Information for this post was found on https://jonahhands.com/.