Briefly imagine yourself at age 7 years old; probably playing in dirt in the backyard or having a neighborhood lemonade stand with subpar lemonade. Well, not for this 7-year-old (now 13), Alina Morse. She was finding ways to create healthy and beneficial lollipops. She was inspired because one day she was asked if she wanted a sucker, but her dad wouldn’t let her because it’s bad for her teeth. Alina decided to come up a mixture that made lollipops enjoyable and tooth friendly. Finally, with the help of her parents they came up with a solution by replacing sugar with natural sweeteners like xylitol and erythritol. Both of those materials have been shown to reduce plaque and oral bacteria.
Immediatly, Zollipops took off and stores like Whole Foods picked up the product. Zollipops are sold in 7,500 stores, is projected to drive $5 million to $6 million in retail sales THIS YEAR. Don’t you wish you had thought of creating of healthy sweets instead of selling lemonade in your driveway? Now, her mom is a designer and organizer for the company and her dad is the manger plus co-salesman at trade shows. The company may have expanded financially, but the company has a grand total of 6 full time employers and several independent contractors.
Nice article! I like how she, instead of giving up or protesting when she was told she couldn’t have lollypops, she came up with the solution of making healthy lollypops. That’s a really good solution, and I can see them selling to a lot of dentists and candy stores.
When met with the issue of not being able to enjoy lollypops, it sounds like Alina rose to the challenge and created a product that I think would appeal to many parents. Instead of feeling guilty by giving their kids a sugary, tooth rotting, lollypop, the parents could instead give them a Zollipop and at least have the peace of mind that they are somewhat good for the kid. This is a cool idea that I would be interested in tasting myself!