Opportunity: Girls Going Places Entrepreneurship Award Program & Conferences
Here’s a great entrepreneurship opportunity for girls, the Girls Going Places Entrepreneurship Award Program. The contest is giving grants to girls who have creative business ideas. Visit http://www.girlsgoingplaces.com for more information, to see last years winners and to download an application.
Thanks to teen business coach Shonika Proctor from the Teen Entrepreneurship Blog for the heads up!
Description From the Website:
The Girls Going Places® Entrepreneurship Award Program is celebrating its prestigious 10th anniversary by opening its 2010 award program for entries.
Deadline: February 26, 2010. Submissions received after the deadline date will be entered in the 2011 competition.
See below for more info on the contest and local area conferences:
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Check Out Dreamer ENT’s Editor on Sunkissed Girlz
Dreamer ENT’s Editor Julene will be featured on an upcoming show about young entrepreneurs hosted by Sunkissed Girlz, an awesome online publication for girls. Tune in on Sunday, January 17th at 6 p.m. EST to also hear interviews with Lisa Price, the owner of the hair and beauty line Carol’s Daughter, as well as a 10-year old who has a lip gloss business. They’ll interviewed by a young entrepreneur Alana Jones, 13-year-old co-founder of Sunkissed Girlz. To hear the interview go to www.sunkissedgirlz.com and click on the Sunkissed Girlz radio icon to listen live. While you’re on the site check out the recent articles about entrepreneurship: “You CAN make money selling healthy snacks!” and “Turn Your Hair Talent Into Cash!” We hope you’re inspired to get thinking about what business you might start this year!
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Cruising Along: The Today Show’s Kid Reporter on Her First Assignment
In November the Today Show named 13-year-old Deidra Shores from Memphis, Tennessee, as the winner of the Today’s Kid Reporter contest. Deidra is an energetic and outgoing young lady and achieving student who wowed the judges with her creative entry video, “Where in the World is Matt Lauer?” For the winning round, she and three other finalists reported on the world’s largest children’s book, a collection of children’s dreams created to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. All of the budding journalists did great work. Congratulations to Deidra on her win!
On her first assignment Deidra boards Carnival Cruise Lines’ newest ship to learn the ins and outs of working on a cruise ship. She seems to have fun interviewing and asking questions about how the ship runs and how the crew spends their time. Watch her in action in the video below:
Below, watch Deidra’s video experience on the Today Show:
You can also watch Deidra’s entry video for the contest below:
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Growing Your Dreams: Interview with Young Entrepreneur Jasmine Lawrence Founder of EDEN Bodyworks
Interview by Julene Fleurmond, Editor and Founder of DreamerENT.com
Jasmine Lawrence is a young successful entrepreneur who has definitely been soaring and growing toward her dreams. It all sprouted when she was 11-years-old, after she mixed together natural ingredients to create her own hair oils for her broken, damaged tresses. By age 13 her hair was flourishing, and she was selling her hair products to friends. At 15 she shared her story with Oprah and other major news outlets, and began discussing distribution deals with Wal-Mart – all while striving to get her homework in on time.
Now at 17-years-old, Jasmine’s natural beauty care company Eden BodyWorks has bloomed immensely, and she hopes to bring it to even greater heights. She recently graduated from high school, and is studying computer engineering at Georgia Tech. She’s also featured in the film Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon (that we wrote about in a previous post) featuring young entrepreneurs. Watch Jasmine below in a clip from the film:
Video Source: Ten9Eight Website
Jasmine spoke to Dreamer ENT about her amazing experiences, what motivates her to keep going, and how other young people can bring their dreams to fruition:
Note: There are clips from the audio interview sprinkled throughout. Make sure to read the second half of the interview below.
Jasmine On How She Got Started
Dreamer ENT: So tell me a little about your business. How did you decide to develop your own hair products?
Jasmine Lawrence: It was when I was 11-years-old. I got a relaxer that was put in my hair, and it caused almost all of it to break off. So, just loosing my hair was really devastating for me… I’m really usually an outgoing person but I turned into a really shy person… I didn’t want people to take pictures of me, I didn’t want people to look at me because I was so embarrassed all the time. I tried to make different ways to make my hair grow back whether it was taking medications or using hair treatments and things like that but they didn’t work for me, and they were just using more and more chemicals that was making my situation worse.
So what I decided to do was to just use natural things, and I did research online and in books, and I eventually developed a hair oil. It was actually after I went to NFTE that I decided to start my own business.
DE: How did you learn where to get ingredients for your products from?
JL: I started just by going to different natural stores, just getting small quantities of herbs and little essential oils in the city actually, in New York. Then I actually ventured on to the Internet and my parents let me order offline, and that’s when I actually started importing ingredients from different countries.
DE: That’s cool, for NFTE was it a summer camp you attended? (NFTE, or the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship is an organization that helps young people start their own businesses).
JL: Yes, I went to a NFTE BizCamp, and it was just really inspiring.
DE: And what type of things did you learn there?
JL: Wow, I learned, oh goodness I learned so much stuff there! I learned – I learned about the different types of businesses you could be whether you’re a retailer or a wholesaler. I didn’t know that there were different types of businesses – corporations, limited liability and sole proprietorship.
I learned basically how to break down what you’re selling into units, and the difference between profit, revenue… And I learned a lot about marketing and networking. I learned about SWOT, which is Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The three C’s which is customers, concept, and capital. I learned a lot and I still use my NFTE textbook today when I speak to other kids about entrepreneurship.
DE: You said you speak to other kids, do you have a program, or do you speak at schools? How is it?
Listen to Jasmine reflect on her speaking experiences in this clip:
JL: I do a lot of motivational speaking, not just to elementary school kids but to high-schoolers, colleges, and also adults. And I just really enjoy seeing that the adults and the children have the same responses afterwards. They’re both encouraged, they both have, you know, ideas running through their mind, and really all they needed was someone to tell them, ‘You can do it,’ you know, just a positive example of someone whose on the right track.
On Balancing The School Books With Business Books
DE: So your senior year of high school, I know it could be really crazy with senior trips and prom. How is it balancing your business with school?
JL: It’s been pretty difficult to balance school and the business. But over the – (laughs) well I can say over the years now – over the years it has gotten a lot easier. I usually try to schedule my events to be after school, over weekends or over long breaks, so I don’t miss too much of any of my years in school. I usually bring my homework with me and study on plane rides. And when I am in school, I make sure I pay special attention and take notes on whatever the teachers are saying, and even stay after school if I do need extra help. So I make sure my grades don’t slip just because I have to go to a different event or stay up late researching or something.
DE: So is education really important to you?
JL: Oh yeah, definitely. Education is number one for me right now. My business is great, but I definitely plan on going to college and getting a degree in engineering, and in business.
DE: That’s great, it’s great to see young people passionate about their education.
Seeds of Success…
After you started your business, how did it start picking up? Did you start selling it at your school or to your friends?
JL: When I first started I initially just sold to my family and friends, and I moved on to actually selling at my church. Then I actually went to different braiding and beauty salons and I tried to sell it to them… Eventually I got picked up by Wal-Mart, and that was, that was crazy.
DE: I read somewhere that you’re in Whole Foods?
JL: Whole Foods carries one of my lines, and I was really excited about that. And I’m just hoping to continue to expand into a lot of different major retailers so that I could be more easily accessible by everyone.
DE: Can you talk about what makes your product line unique?
JL: Well, there are a lot of things that make it different besides the fact that I made it when I was 11, but the key things that I like to focus on are the fact that my products are truly all natural. A lot of people will just state that, they’ll put one natural ingredient on there and they’ll call their product natural, but I truly, truly strive to put the most natural ingredients in there. Secondly, I try to make my products affordable because I believe everyone should be able to use natural products – they shouldn’t be 30 bucks for a bottle of shampoo. I think that’s ridiculous, it should be something that you can afford to use whenever you need it.
DE: And are they for anyone to use, anyone of any background, any type of hair?
JL: Oh yeah, that’s another thing that I’ve been trying to stress – that they’re for any age, any race, anyone out there who basically has hair. I’ve been using it on my little sister since she was born, my nephew was just born and he uses it. My grandmother whose 80 uses it. I’ve had people from all over the world, I’ve had orders from so many countries, and Europe and Asia, even to Australia, who’ve used the product and loved it.
DE: Wow that’s amazing!
Jasmine Shares Hair Care Tips
DE: So what’s your hair care regimen?
JL: (Laughs) I wrap my hair at night, and I usually wash my hair every other week. I try not to press or flat iron my hair everyday. I use my oil in the morning to get rid of any dandruff or dry scalp… I use one of my products called Hair Milk when I kind of want that natural wavy look. (Laughs) I don’t know, I’m a big fan of headbands, and side bangs.
DE: Do you have any tips for someone who wants to go natural and stop using chemicals in their hair, like what products do they use?
JL: I have a set of three products and I put them together and called it a hair care pack. It’s a shampoo, a conditioner and a hair milk, and I think those three things will definitely help anyone who wants to go natural with their hair. The shampoo and conditioner is great for helping your hair grow, cleansing it, and just restoring health back into it. The hair milk is a great moisturizer, and the shampoo and conditioner also help with dandruff, split ends, and a lot of problems that everyone has – and it’s reasonably priced. There’s two different ones that they can choose from right now, and I’m working on expanding that too.
On Her Visit to the Oprah Winfrey Show…
DE: You’ve gotten so much press from so many venues, and you’ve gotten press from where everyone wants to get press from – the Oprah Winfrey Show. How did you get to be on that show and how was your experience there? (Click here to read about the episode).
Below, listen to Jasmine talk to us about her experience on the Oprah Winfrey Show and the result it had on her business:
JL: Well, the experience was – I’ll start off by saying the experience was amazing. I had a great time while I was there, I had a great time when they actually came and filmed at my home, my family was just so excited, and Oprah and all of her people were just so welcoming, so helpful, and they just made everything so easy for me. Flying out to Chicago, and being there was just a dream – I was smiling, the whole time I was on cloud nine.
But really, I’m still even to this day not a hundred percent sure how they found me, but one of the producer’s family members, I think it was, was actually using my product, and they saw my story on the bottle, and one day I just got a call from them one day after school and they asked me to be on the show.
DE: Wow, that’s so amazing, and how was the response after the show? Did you get a lot of orders?
JL: Wow, I got thousands of orders after that show, and just the credibility of when Oprah says that you’re doing a good job, (laughs) a lot of people really respect that. And that was one of the boosts of respect that I really needed, someone to just back what I’m doing – not necessarily endorsing my product, but, just telling people my story and why I started this business. It’s one of the things that keeps the quality in my products, because I’m not just doing this business to make money, I’m actually doing it to help other people.
DE: Definitely, that’s that great thing to have as a mission – not only making money but also having a mission statement for your business.
Continue reading the rest of the interview with Jasmine below, where she talks about what she loves to do for fun, and shares some inspiration:
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Shooting for the Moon: TEN9EIGHT Film Features Young Entrepreneurs
They’re bright, energetic, and blazing a trail of accomplishment by shooting toward their dreams… Check out the film Ten9Eight featuring a group of young passionate entrepreneurs…
“In America, a kid drops out of high school every 9 seconds… Imagine if they didn’t.” The upcoming documentary Ten9Eight explores this question, by telling the stories of a group of diverse young entrepreneurs from urban neighborhoods around the country who are overlooking their circumstances and starting their own businesses. The film, by award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio, follows the teens as they compete in an annual business plan competition run by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). The teens are selected from over 24,000 students from across the country, and compete in the final round in New York City for the chance to win $10,000 to launch his or her business.
Here are introductions to some of the young people featured in the film:
Anné Montague, age 17, Founder of Inamoratos Dance (pictured above): Anné does it all. She dances, choreographs, and takes full charge of her dance company, which she started at the age of 10. Anné was raised primarily by her father, Purcell Montague, a truck driver, as her mother suffered from drug addiction. Anné, a focused girl with a big attitude, requires her dancers to go to class and keep their grades up. Anné’s business is a non-profit, aimed at getting inner city kids off the street. Her motto? “No shirt, no shoes, no need. We dance.” Anné will attend Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University next year, majoring in business.
Rodney Walker, age 19, Founder of Forever Life Music and Video Productions: Rodney was put into the foster care system at the age of 5 and ended up homeless on the streets of Chicago. Almost becoming a statistic like many of his brothers, Rodney was able to chart a new future – and is now studying business as a freshman at Morehouse College.
Amanda Loyola, age 16, Founder of Eco-Dog Biscuits: Amanda’s father escaped from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, finding a job at Burger King in Brooklyn, New York. He inspired his daughter, Amanda, to think that anything might be possible in America. Amanda started her business, a vegetarian dog treat company, after her dog, Princess, died from cancer.
Anné, Rodney, Amanda are but three of several remarkably resilient kids featured in this film, all of whom are facing the most challenging of circumstances in the inner city – making their achievements all the more remarkable.
Descriptions from from the website Ten9Eight.com
Click here to read more of the teens’ stories and for more photos, and visit www.ten9eight.com to see if the film will be playing at a theater near you.
Watch the trailer for the inspiring film below:
Dreamer ENT Editor’s Note: As a NFTE alumnus I’m really excited to see this film, and encourage everyone to see it as well. To find out more about how you or someone you know can take part in NFTE visit www.nfte.com.
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Hi, I'm Julene, editor and director of Dreamer ENT. The goal of this site is to inspire young people, and the young at heart, to pursue their passions boldly and brilliantly... 
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