At the age of only 20, Maya Penn is one of the most accomplished female fashion entrepreneurs in the world. On top of this, she is also a published author and animator. So how is she so successful?
In recent weeks, we have covered several so-called kidpreneurs, including Rachel Zietz, Mo Bridges and Mikaila Ulmer to name but a few. Today, we will cover Maya Penn.
Early Life
Maya Penn was born to John and Deidre Penn on February 10 2000, in Atlanta, Georgia. Her father John is a fairly successful technology entrepreneur, teaching Maya from a young age about technology.
As a kid, Maya was very artsy. As with most kids her age, she loved to draw and she loved to color even more. According to Maya during one of her TEDTalks, she was “drawing ever since she could hold a crayon”.
When she was only three, Maya was creating flipbooks– an old form of animation, purely for fun. At four, her father John taught her how to take apart a computer and put it back together again.
Throughout her childhood, her parents taught her how to be a good person, to give back and to be as eco-friendly as possible.
During her childhood, she would search around the house for scrap materials, saying that a junk piece of ribbon could be a scarf, or a scrap of an old blanket could be a hat or whatever.
Her mother taught her how to sew, and she soon began to turn these materials into homemade scarfs, hats and other items. When she’d walk around, people would admire them and ask where she got it from.
Maya’s Ideas
As an eight year old, Maya would simply reply that she made them herself. People would then compliment her ability to produce such a nice finished product, hinting that they’d be interested in purchasing one from her.
This gave her the idea to found her own company, producing and selling the same hats and scarfs that she’d previously been producing simply for fun. Both of Maya’s parents agreed to this as well.
Maya would then code her own website in HTML, registering a domain and designing it to look nice. Whilst Maya did most of the work, her father, John, still helped her when some of the code got complex.
With the help of her mom, Maya would produce some of her earliest products on her back porch. She would sew them, add a nice little bow to them and write their price on a piece of paper.
She would subsequently sell them on her newly built website. Maya chose to name her website Maya’s Ideas, as it was ideas that led her to create her own hats and scarfs, and thus, her own business.
Her company would soon become quite successful, with her hats and scarfs selling remarkably well, mostly coinciding with the eco-friendly trend that happened at a similar time to the founding of Maya’s Ideas.
Animation
As a kid, Maya enjoyed making flipbook cartoons, making them simply for fun. As with most other kids her age, Maya enjoyed watching flipbook-produced cartoons, imagining that one day, her flipbooks would be on TV.
One day, she was sat watching a TV program that talked about how cartoons were produced. One of these episodes showed that most people who made cartoons were young, and sat in a studio all day doing what they loved.
This was the day that Maya realized that she also wanted to be an animator. With the help of her father, she soon began to animate her flipbooks on the computer, and soon became famous for these as well as her business.
Perhaps her most famous animation work is The Pollinators. The Pollinators are a superhero team of insects that fight the bad guys who stop them from pollinating flowers. The animation is supposed to emphasize the importance of bees.
After releasing The Pollinators, Maya’s computer was attacked by a virus that caused her to need a brand new computer. As a child, she naturally didn’t understand what a virus was, and thought they had their own “virus culture” like humans have.
Eventually, this resulted in Maya creating Malicious Dishes. This looked at the “virus culture” that computer viruses were a part of. This was very well received, even by computer programmers!
Non-Profit & Activism
For almost her entire life, Maya has been one of the world’s leading environmental activists. Naturally, she does a lot of this through her company, but much of it is just her.
This activism has ranged from marching for climate change reform, to giving speeches, to addressing Congress! Both as herself, as a private citizen and as herself, the CEO of Maya’s Ideas.
In 2011, she announced that she was a member of the non-profit One Billion Rising organization. This organization aims to reduce the number of sexual assaults and rapes that happen all over the world.
At the same time, she also announced that she was a member and supporter of Girls, Inc. This organization aims to equip young girls with the necessary skills to become successful in life.
Later on that same year, Maya also wanted to join a clothing-related environmentalist group. However, there were none that really “stood out” to her, so she made her own.
This organization is a registered non-profit organization, called Maya’s Ideas 4 The Planet. The organization aims to work with manufacturers, retailers and customers to make their clothes last longer and be more eco-friendly.
Awards
As you can probably imagine, due to her being both a kidpreneur and a social and environmental activist, Maya Penn, even at the age of only 20, has received numerous awards.
In 2016, near the end of the Obama Administration, Maya was commissioned to produce a report for Congress. This report was the first digital and animated report ever produced for Congress.
Maya didn’t just work for Barack Obama, but also his wife, Michelle Obama. In 2018, when Michelle released her book, Becoming, Maya was invited to a private pre-launch meeting to discuss the book, having been handpicked by Michelle herself!
Due to her high-profile activism, as well as being one of only a handful of teenpreneurs, she has also given three different TEDTalks, with two having been back-to-back, being the youngest person to ever do so.
In 2013, at the age of only 13, Magic Johnson himself chose Maya to be featured in his 32 Under 32 series. That same year, Maya was also the winner of the 2013 Black Enterprise Teenpreneur of The Year Award.
On top of all this, Maya has also been featured in numerous magazine and blog articles, occasionally by large outlets such as Time, CBS, O Magazine, Ebony and Business Insider. Not to mention interviews and podcasts…
Today
As of the time of writing, Finance Friday estimates Maya Penn’s net worth at roughly $2.5 million, mostly derived from the stock she holds in Maya’s Ideas. However, other outlets place her net worth anywhere from $1 to $5 million.
Whilst originally starting with “basic” garments such as scarfs, tops and blouses, Maya’s Ideas have begun to diversify and begin to produce other garments in recent years.
Today, Maya’s Ideas produces almost anything, ranging from hairbands to bags to hats to jewelry to yoga wear. Maya has also hinted on social media that they will expand their product lines in the next few years.
Maya also continues to animate for various groups and individuals. It’s likely that in the coming years, she will continue to produce animations for Congress and other groups.
In 2016, Maya published her first book You Got This! Unleash Your Awesomeness, Find Your Path, and Change Your World. This book has sold incredibly well, not only in the US, but also worldwide.
Many schools in third world countries have bought the book to be used to teach young people and young women in particular how to become independent and successful.
How Can I Replicate What Maya Penn Did?
Short answer: You can’t. Maya Penn has already taken up that small section of the market already. If you joined the market, producing the same products, people will turn to her instead, it’s just simple logic.
And with all due respect, why would you want to? Maya has used her expertise to produce luxury eco-friendly clothing at a somewhat reasonable price (depending on what you define as “reasonable)! Why would you want to be a rehash of her?
Long answer: You can. Whilst you probably won’t want to copy Maya Penn 100%, you can still become a competitor. Maya has made her money by making luxury eco-friendly products at a somewhat reasonable price.
Perhaps you could be the one to produce eco-friendly clothing at a seriously affordable price, akin to the price of Walmart-branded clothes or something similar. She takes the higher end of the market, you take the lower end.
If you want to become a successful fashion designer and entrepreneur, you’d be better off reading the biographies of other fashion designers as well. Depending on who it is, you may also find their autobiography too!
You can do the same for other kidpreneurs if you are that sort of age.
By reading their (auto)biography, you find small hints about what they’re like as a person. And more importantly, what makes them tick- what makes them more successful than the hundreds of other people who came before and after them.
Then implement those things in your own life!
What Can we Learn From Maya Penn?
Despite only being 20 years old as of writing this, the life of Maya Penn can teach you a lot. This isn’t just about starting and running your own business, but also personal finance and life in general!
Don’t be Afraid to Try Something New
For Maya, there would’ve always been a certain set of expectations placed upon her, not only by society as a whole, but also by her parents as well. One of them probably included getting a job like “normal” people.
And yes, Maya could’ve coasted through school, getting good grades and the on to university, In another life, Maya could’ve been a successful surgeon or a lawyer or something similar.
Except, that’s not what she chose to do. Instead, she chose, at the incredibly young age of eight, to start her own company. Many people believe that she is wasting her time, and would be better off studying.
However, she never let this get her down. Instead, she has taken this and has used it to fuel her ambition. And in all honesty, she’s better off because of it!
Never Let Anything Stop You
Everyday, Maya’s Ideas grows. For the most part, this takes customers away from large fashion houses, often ones who have several times the money that Maya’s Ideas has.
However, she doesn’t let this stop her. Each day fashion houses like H&M lose money is another day that Maya’s Ideas earns more money.
Maya has likely been intimidated by the sheer size of her competitors. But she has never let this show. Instead, she has organized herself in such a way that old fashion houses can’t stop her, but also can’t compete with her.
At least, not in a way that would make their shareholders happy!
Age Doesn’t Matter
As with most other kidpreneurs, such as Ben Pasternak and/or Alexander Pask, I think that Maya shows this one in particular, incredibly well. Maya proves that regardless of your age, you can become successful.
For Maya, she began running her own business at the age of eight. At the same time, many people in her classes at school were going home and watching TV or playing video games.
Maya has had to overcome obstacles that most other entrepreneurs don’t. As a kid, she can’t open a business bank account, instead, she either has to have an all-cash business or have a parent help her open one.
On top of this, she also had to balance school with her business for much of her time as an entrepreneur, including completing homework and essays. Yet, that hasn’t stopped her from becoming incredibly successful!
Consistency
As a general rule, consistency is a good thing to have, regardless of what you do. Consistency can be good if you work a regular 9-5 office job, or if you’re in a long-term relationship. It’s also good if you’re an kidpreneur…
Just as with other kidpreneurs, Maya shows this incredibly well. As stated earlier, she went to school for much of her early entrepreneurial career, something that took up eight to nine hours of her day, excluding homework.
This has likely impacted her business. In order to combat this, Maya has to work on her business with every non-school related minute she has. This includes the weekends and holidays (and yes… maybe even Christmas!)
After all, she doesn’t have the luxury of spending 19 hours of her day focused solely on her business… She also doesn’t really get “days off” otherwise, she probably wouldn’t make too much money.
Know Your Audience
At the age of eight, Maya saw that people were looking for humane and eco-friendly alternatives. She realized that the large fashion houses weren’t doing enough, quick enough, so she decided to do it for them.
Each year, the world’s largest fashion houses spend millions of dollars on market research. For Maya, she talks to her friends, for free. Maya takes what her friends tell her, plus her own research, and makes what they want!
As a young person herself, Maya also draws on her experiences and desires as well. If these coincide with what her friends and other people her own age want, she makes and sells them!
Understanding her audience incredibly well, is arguably the reason why Maya Penn is so successful. She knows what her customers want like the back of her hand, and delivers accordingly…
Has the story of Maya Penn inspired you? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Maya’s Ideas.
