11 Black Child Entrepreneurs You Should Know

Jaylen Bledsoe

The fact that Bledsoe Technologies is worth nearly $3.5 million may not surprise you. What is truly fascinating, however, is that the company was founded four years ago by then-12-year-old Jaylen Bledsoe, now 16, according to The Huffington Post.

Since then, Bledsoe Technologies has become the No. 1 information technology consultancy firm operated by a minor in the Midwest. The company has grown from two employees to nearly 150 contracted workers in order to meet the demand for its services.

Maya Penn 

Maya Penn is the CEO of Maya’s Ideas, which she founded when she was 8 years old. Penn is an entrepreneur, a technologist, a philanthropist, an artist, an author, an animator and a coder, as cited by Tech Republic. Maya’s Ideas is a site where she sells eco-friendly clothing and accessories, like scarves, hats and hair clips.

She started the business because she liked sewing headbands, and people started asking her to make them. She began selling them on Etsy, but quickly realized she could build a brand of her own. And, this is more than just a cute idea — Maya’s Ideas generated more than $30,000 in 2012.

Diana Kerubo Mong’are

Diana Kerubo Mong’are of Kenya, now 18, is the founder of Waste Value, a local recycling initiative that mobilizes farmers, carpenters, households and a local recycling company to reduce waste build-up, at a profit, as reported by the MasterCard Foundation. She is currently a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania.

Laetitia Mukungu

Laetitia Mukungu of Kenya, now 18, is the founder of Women’s Rabbit Association, a cooperative organization that farms rabbits profitably to help women pay for their children’s educational needs. At the age of 14, her passion for agriculture and education drove her to start the Women’s Rabbit Association in the remote village of Bukura in Kenya, according to the How We Made It in Africa website.