Meet the Teen Girlbosses Who Started an All-Natural Tea Company
What were you doing your senior year of high school? If you’re anything like us, you were perfecting your back to school style and trying to decide whether there were enough good reasons to take a gap year. Most of us weren’t already launching our first side hustle, but that’s exactly what these badass teen #girlbosses are doing. Allie and Mystikal, two high school seniors from Cambridge, MA, founded Mystik Alley Teas, a company that makes organic, all-natural and super delicious-sounding teas.
Mystikal and Allie have been part of the Possible Project, a makerspace designed to help high school students become entrepreneurs, for three years. They do all the manufacturing, product design (with names like “lu·mi·nos·i·tea” and “tran·quil·i·tea” — so cute!) and marketing for Mystik Alley Teas themselves. Talk about some entrepreneur inspiration!
When it comes to balancing school and their business, these founders are pros. “We treat it like a job (however much fun we have with it!). We dedicate and organize time for both school and the company by setting schedules. We also divide work so that not just one person is responsible for all that needs to be done.”
Allie and Mystikal are true examples of what happens when passion and really hard work come together — no matter what stage of life you’re in.They have some advice for other young people with an entrepreneurial spirit.
“For aspiring teen entrepreneurs, choose something you are passionate about and then create a business around it — the rest will come naturally if you love your product and what you do enough,” they say. “Your business should be something you want to work on long-term… It should be something that attempts to solve a problem you care about. You should take pride in whatever you create and want to expand and make it the best it could be.”
And they plan to do just that — continue expanding their business while they’re at college next year. “Although we are going to separate colleges this fall, we believe this will only broaden our customer base. We hope to expand our online customer base as well, and potentially sell our tea in stores or restaurants. We are open and willing to deal with any problems we face to keep Mystik Alley Teas running.” If that doesn’t sound like seasoned #girlbosses talking, we don’t know what does.
Could YOU imagine running a business in high school? Tweet us your thoughts @BritandCo!
(Photos via Mystik Alley Teas)
