Can doodling help create a company, make Proctor & Gamble come knocking to invest in it, all for a venture that you started at age 10? Juliette Brindak says and proves its possible, all you need is a can-do spirit. At 19, her company was worth US $ 15 million, though she refuses to reveal when she hit her first million.
Juliette’s enterprise Miss O & Friends is the middle ground between Barbie and Britney ( that is the exact words for her target group), a hangout for the impressionable tweens, because young girls grow faster physically than emotionally, and Miss O & Friends™ provides a hip, yet wholesome alternative, which allows girls to still be girls.
“Miss O & Friends“, says Juliette, ” is about real girls growing up. Their images and stories are authentic and inspirational. These young girls are hip, yet wholesome, with a positive sense of self. Although diverse, they share common enthusiasm for the Internet, mobility, instant messaging and emailing – many of the primary tools for how young girls gather and communicate today.” Miss O started as a place for 8-12 year olds who could be themselves, enabling in confidence building, self Esteem and personal best, devoid of any pressures of being sexually overt and also does its bit in the corporate social responsibility domain by donating a percentage of proceeds to charities helping young girls.
Miss O was originally conceived as a set of characters in her childhood, all of 10 years, which got a finite shape, courtesy her Mom who made them for her friends and the latter went crazy. The potential was huge , with respect to the ‘recognition’ and ‘identity’ of the peer group and it was also when her Dad got involved in the ‘enterprise’ of the ‘doodles.’ It went on to have its own online presence that helped build a community called Miss O and Friends, which grew overwhelmingly popular, and she released her first book which sold more than 120,000 copies at 16, and at 19, Proctor and Gamble invested funds into her company. From US $ 15 million, Miss O & Friends has now grown to be a cult phenomenon of the virtual world.
Miss O & Friends is the 6th most popular site for girls right now and she also prides in having her Dad as one of its employees.