Mikaila was 4 years old when her parents asked her to choose between doing more chores or earning money on her own to buy a doll. “I had enough chores already,” she says. After seeing an ad for a local business fair, Mikaila signed up. All she needed was a product to sell.
Then two things happened: First Mikaila’s great-granny gave Mikaila her cookbook with a recipe for honey flaxseed lemonade. Then, Mikaila was stung by bees. “I became terrified of bees,” she says. Mikaila’s parents had her do research to conquer her fear, and she learned that much of our food supply relies on bees—and that they’re dying off.
Now inspired to help bees, Mikaila set up a lemonade stand and began selling her great-granny’s recipe. Mikaila soon earned enough money to buy the doll, but she was hooked. She made posters, scored investment funds on Shark Tank, and began bottling her lemonade. Today, Mikaila is a high school senior, CEO of a multimillion-dollar beverage company, an author, and she’s donated thousands of dollars to help bees.