Alina Morse
Alina Morse was already a self made millionaire by the time she could drive.
When she was 7, Alina Morse went to the bank with her dad.
The teller offered her a lollipop.
Her dad said no… candy was bad for her teeth.
Most kids would’ve complained (I would have).
But Alina wondered why a lollipop had to be bad for your teeth in the first place
She started researching ingredients, watching YouTube tutorials, testing recipes in her kitchen.
Nothing worked.
The candy melted, burned, exploded in the microwave.
So she brought in a food scientist and asked her dentist for advice.
She put in her entire life savings ($3,750 from birthday and holiday gifts) and got her dad to match it.
And at 9, she convinced Whole Foods to take a chance on her.
That first year, she sold 70,000 sugar-free lollipops.
By age 13, Zolli Candy was in 25,000 stores.
Sales hit $6M.
Alina became the youngest person ever on the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine.
Michelle Obama invited her to the White House.
Twice.
Zollipops were the only candy served.
Through her nonprofit, the Million Smiles Initiative, Alina’s donated millions of lollipops to schools across America, along with lesson plans on dental care and entrepreneurship.
Source: The State News
Mikaila Ulmer
Mikaila Ulmer was four years old when life handed her lemons… and stingers.
Two bees stung her in the same week.
At the library, she learned bees were in crisis.
Colony collapse disorder was wiping out hives, threatening the food supply.
Without bees, much of the food we eat (fruits, vegetables, nuts) would disappear.
She decided she wouldn’t just feel sorry for them. She’d save them.
A week later, her great-grandmother Helen’s 1940s cookbook landed in her hands.
Inside was a flaxseed lemonade recipe.
Mikaila swapped sugar for local honey, both to help the bees and to make a healthier drink, and started selling it from a folding table outside her house.
Her promise: 10% of profits would go to bee conservation.
It worked.
Customers loved it. Not just for the taste, but for the mission.
Soon a local pizza shop asked her to bottle it.
She said yes… and BeeSweet Lemonade was born.
From there, things escalated.
Whole Foods gave her a distribution deal.
The Austin Black Chamber of Commerce encouraged her to pitch on Shark Tank.
In 2015, at just nine years old, she stood in front of the Sharks with her father and landed a $60,000 investment from Daymond John.
That same year, she poured lemonade at the White House Easter Egg Roll and met President Barack Obama, who later called her “an amazing young lady.”
In 2016, she was introducing Obama on stage at the United State of Women Summit.
By 2017, she was selling 500,000 bottles a year in 500 stores.
That year, a consortium of 10 NFL players invested $800,000 into the company.
She launched her nonprofit, the Healthy Hive Foundation, dedicated to education, research, and protection of bees.
When another company claimed rights to her original name, she pivoted, renaming the brand Me & the Bees Lemonade.
Today, her award-winning, honey-sweetened flax lemonades come in five flavors: Classic, Black Cherry, Very Berry, Passionfruit, and Prickly Pear.
They’re sold in over 1,500 stores, including Whole Foods, Target, World Market, The Fresh Market, Kroger, H-E-B, and Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocers.
The product is also served in restaurants, food trucks, and via national foodservice distributors in all 50 states.
She’s refused offers to cut costs by adding preservatives, choosing instead to keep her drinks all-natural.
No high-fructose corn syrup, no artificial flavors, no GMOs.
She’s expanded into beeswax lip balms.
She’s switched from glass bottles to fully recyclable cans, unlocking opportunities in stadiums, schools, and festivals.
In 2020, Mikaila published “Bee Fearless: Dream Like a Kid” with Penguin Random House while still in high school.
Source: ABC30
Anushka Naiknaware
Anushka Naiknaware was in middle school when she found out that chronic wounds affect more Americans than all major cancers combined.
Her first question: Why is no one talking about this?
Her second: Why is no one fixing it?
She started reading journal papers.
And ended up inventing a smart bandage that tells doctors the exact moment it needs to be changed.
It tracks wound moisture.
Too wet? Risk of infection.
Too dry? Healing slows down.
Her design embedded graphene nanoparticles in fractal patterns, printed via a hacked inkjet cartridge using conductive ink she made herself.
It was biocompatible, low-cost, and Bluetooth-enabled, sending real-time data to a phone without removing the bandage.
She built it in her garage. Funded it herself. Wrote her own code.
And at 13, became the youngest winner of the Google Science Fair.
Her bandage won her:
The LEGO Education Builder Award
A $15,000 scholarship
A trip to Denmark
A path to FDA approval and mass manufacturing
She was named one of Teen Vogue’s 21 Under 21.
One of TIME’s 30 Most Influential Teens.
Honored by OMSI as a Teen Scientist.
And had a minor planet named after her: 33118 Naiknaware.
Source: TED
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