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It was a speck of an idea, but Sophia Rizzo, 10, from Burleigh Heads, Qld, is on the way to making a fortune. Here, she tells her story in her own words.
Dressed all in dark, yucky colours, my mum Megan’s outfit made me scrunch up my nose.
‘Mummy, every time you wear black a unicorn dies!’ I reminded her.
If it was up to me, I’d paint the world in every colour of the rainbow. Then add a coat of glitter!
Since I was little, I’ve loved sparkly stuff.
On a family holiday to Hawaii two years ago when I was eight, I was happy to see shops full of shimmery hair clips and hand bags.
This got me thinking about an idea I’d had for a very long time. Maybe even since I was born, I thought.
‘If you opened a business, what would it sell and what would you call it?’ Mum asked me later.
‘Glitter and Glitter Girl!’ I said in a flash.
The next year, all my classmates in grade 3 were crazy about slime. Then one kid started making it and selling it at school for $2.
And my friends were lining up to buy it!
Maths is my best subject, so I started adding all the numbers up in my head.
‘I could sell glitter!’ I told Mum later, excited about all the pocket money I could make.
So, that night, I filled up tiny pots with samples to take into school.
With my best friends Ella, Lucy and Demi as assistants, I wrote down my pals’ orders neatly in my favourite unicorn notepad.
Fifteen! I thought, counting them up.
‘That’ll be $3 each,’ I said, reminding them to bring in the cash tomorrow.
After packaging everything up, I couldn’t sleep.
At school, I gave out the glitter and, soon, everyone was wearing it on their faces and in their hair!
But my teacher wasn’t very impressed – selling stuff at school was against the rules.
There was no way I was giving up though, I kept talking about Glitter Girl to everyone who’d listen.
Then, last June, I went in a cheerleading competition that had 20,000 entrants!
Driving home, my dad, Adam, kept talking about glitter!
‘Everyone was covered in it,’ he said. ‘Maybe we should really think about this idea you’ve got.’
On the ride home, we all brainstormed ideas – even my big brother, Luca, 13, who doesn’t like glitter!
After that, everything happened really quickly.
Mummy did lots of research and found suppliers in different countries.
‘I don’t want it to hurt any animals,’ I said.
So we made sure that the glitter we chose was biodegradable.
It was made from eucalyptus, which I thought was really cool.
At first, we were going to sell just loose glitter, but then we decided to stock glittery eye shadow, too.
‘What about this?’ Mummy asked, showing me a reddy-brown one she liked.
‘Yuck!’ I said, picking only the prettiest, brightest colours.
After three months, we launched my company Glitter Girl and set up a website with everything for sale.
Every time we got an order, my whole family did a happy dance.
But soon we had so many orders that we didn’t have time for that!
Even famous people like Em Rusciano posted on Instagram about my glitter.
I didn’t know who she was, but Mum said she’s a funny comedian on the radio.
‘Mummy, I can’t go to school, I’ve got to work!’ I tell her when we’re busy.
‘It can wait until after school,’ she’ll smile.
See, I’m the boss, but not really – I’m still a kid.
Mummy quit her full-time job as a photographer to work on Glitter Girl. And Dad’s a property developer, but he only does that for half the time now.
With my money, I’m going to buy a pink sparkly car.
And when I’m a bit older, I’ll get a mansion to live in with all my friends.
They can work for me too!
We were all born to sparkle. And so were you!
SOPHIA’S MUM, MEGAN, SAYS:
Sophia really had to convince us to go ahead with the business and my hubby still doesn’t quite understand why everyone gets so excited about glitter! But I’m super proud of our girl – she’s very determined!
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