Oluwademilade Amanda Oyegun, I0-year-old crafts prodigy

I am Oluwademilade Amanda Oyegun, I am 10 years old and I am the CEO of Jolacrafts. My colours are pink and purple and I love beans and dodo and fish pepper soup occasionally.

I love recycling used items at home and turn them into more useful newer products.The journey started about 4 years ago when my art and craft teacher taught us how to use cardboards to make puppets and some other items and I realized I loved to work with things like this.

Initially I usually make birthday/appreciation cards for my family and I love the thrill on their faces when they receive it as a surprise.Sometime in 2016, I attended 2 events organized by a well-known company where I discovered my passion for saving the earth through recycling items. At a time, I picked used neat used bottles in my home/environment to save the earth from garbage dumping. So playfully I made funny crafts from used plastic bottles and caps/cereal boxes/medicine cartons etc.
All I told my parents were to get me gum, glue, scissors, ribbon, coloured pencils, water colour, cardboards…etc I creatively started keeping junks (though mummy complained initially, but she understood) from home in my room.

I made puppets, black rat with long tail, simple coloured computer (from disposable food pack), robot, table mat, cardboard flip flop though they weren’t nice looking but I liked them all the same. As a matter of fact, the idea was not to make them look factory-perfect, I was just doing all these to boost my creativity and see the advantages I could make from these already-used products so that when the right equipment/tools come, I would be able to wow the whole world.

Early 2017, my goal was making 10,000 naira and I sold wooden piggy banks on Sundays in my church and sold 42 piggy banks just in January and February. So I kept the profit and purchased my regular crafts items for further craft production. I always feel so excited and fulfilled whenever I’m all alone doing all these. I feel so special and unique because I believe it takes something special to mould/recreate a trash or a used-up product into something people embrace.

By Easter 2017, there was a Kent Fair exhibition by Kid Entrepreneur and mummy applied for me. That was the first time I would go for an exhibition. I had some pencil cases, greeting cards and table bins which were available for display. I had my first interview with a fellow kid entrepreneur at the fair. I was a bit discouraged but was told there’s always a beginning, more so, and that I was there to showcase products and get feedbacks beyond making fantastic sales. That really relieved me!

I forgot to state that I enjoy making smoothies for my family on Sundays. I participated in a smoothie/snacks/ home made food event in school and had fun when parents came to taste.

Around October 2017, another event came up for kids and I attended with my kid brother. I had a good time as well as learning better and improving my skills. The most interesting part I notice when I go to all these public exhibitions is that people stop by my stand and get marveled by the work of arts performed on things believed to have been trashed long ago but have been renewed. Seeing these kinds of reaction to my works gives me more joy than getting money from them, because it just informs me that I am on the verge of shaking the world.

I have been attending to my studies, hence the slow pace of entrepreneurship activities in the last 6 months. I’ve already fashioned a plan that will prevent one from affecting the other. I have quality time to study; I also have quality time to do crafts.

As a young business person, I love to do my best and do what I love doing. I just want to encourage other kids that love doing peculiar things to start/engage themselves in what they love to do and see how it goes, you never know.I know I can be a lot better with what I do but I understand I’m coming from somewhere, and I’m open to leaning. I want to improve on the finishing, branding, market it well, keep good account, develop my business page and do more research on internet.

I’m a southpaw and so is my mother and she inspires me a lot at home with a lot of encouragement with studies and girl-mother gist, how to be a role model etc. My mother is my inspiration on this amazing journey! What is yours? Find it and you will be fulfilled!!