Young CEO: Her passion for candles made her a top businesswoman

At the age of 11, Kierra developed a passion for candle-making and opened her own business. Now she encourages other kids to become entrepreneurs.

Transcript

00:00When I see an ad about food or some drink and I'm like, hey, maybe I can build a candle

00:09around it.

00:17My name is Kiara, I'm 15 years old and I'm the CEO of Candles by Kiara.

00:38I started my business at the age of 11 after creating a candle for my dad.

00:43I wanted to do something different for Father's Day, so I looked up candle making videos and

00:47I made him the chocolate chip cookies and milk candle.

00:50Mom took a picture of me and posted the picture on Facebook and I got a lot of positive responses,

00:55so I decided to start a candle making business.

01:02My candles are made with all natural soy wax.

01:05This is the chocolate chip cookies and milk candle.

01:09It smells like fresh baked cookies.

01:13This is the strawberry blast shake, this one's my favorite.

01:19This one is the luxurious lavender.

01:21I came up with this candle during quarantine because I figured most people, like my mom

01:25and even myself, were looking for something soft and relaxing.

01:31This is cinnamon swirl cappuccino, it looks like a cappuccino you would get from a cafe.

01:35This is the pineapple explosion.

01:40People say that my candles are very unique.

01:43They say they don't want to burn the candle because they don't want to ruin design and

01:46I tell them, hey, it's a candle, you have to burn it.

01:52One of the challenges I faced is time management because I have a very busy schedule and I

01:59was just going around and I couldn't get anything done.

02:06My mom taught me something called time management, now I'm able to have a balanced schedule.

02:11So when I come home from school, I'll melt my wax and while my wax is melting, I'll start

02:15working on homework and then once I'm done with homework, I'll pour candles and then

02:18once I'm done pouring candles, I get to go practice with volleyball.

02:28Something that I want to tell people my age is that you must love what you do.

02:38My motto is that a young creative mind can grow a business and they do not have to wait

02:43until they're an adult to achieve their goals.