Bump a lemonade stand. Mikaila Ulmer, an 11-year-old from Austin, Texas, is dreaming way bigger – and it’s finally paid off.
Mikaila is the creative mind behind BeeSweet, a flaxseed-based lemonade sweetened by the honey of local bees. The junior entrepreneur recently landed a distribution deal with Whole Foods, which will place BeeSweet on the shelves of 55 store locations.
Ironically, it was Mikaila’s unfortunate encounter with bees that sparked the idea to launch the brand. After getting two bee stings in one week at the age of 4, Mikaila started researching bees and learned that not only are they incredibly important to our ecosystem, they’re also endangered.
“Last year, beekeepers lost 40 percent of all their hives,” Mikaila told NBC. “Bees are dying.” She quoted Albert Einstein, who said: “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left.”
Aside from her astonishing Whole Foods deal, the social entrepreneur, speaker, and philanthropist has accomplished much more; the 6th grader also attended the White House Kids’ State Dinner last year, where she met President Barack Obama.
If Mikaila looks familiar, you may remember her from the hit TV show Shark Tank. She took home $60,000 to put towards her business last year.
Not too shabby, considering she squeezes all this in between homework.
SOURCE: NBC | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty, Instagram
11-Year-Old Lands Multi-Million Dollar Lemonade Deal With Whole Foods was originally published on globalgrind.com
