How One Teen Turned Her Babysitting Money into a $250 Million Jewelry Business

Like a lot of teenagers, Bella Weems works an after-school job—hers just happens to involve a multimillion-dollar jewelry business she founded when she was a high school freshman.

Bella, now 17 and a senior, started the company that eventually became Origami Owl—a name she and her mom brainstormed together—out of necessity: She wanted a car. She asked her parents if she could have one when she turned 16, but her request was quickly denied. They told her she’d have to work to save up the money. Though her reaction at the time wasn’t particularly optimistic (“I was like, ‘Yeah, right!'”), that’s exactly what Bella did. She earned $350 in babysitting money and asked her parents to match her savings, netting her an initial investment of $700 to start her own company.

The next step was coming up with an idea. Bella always loved making jewelry, lockets especially, and thought it would be cool to sell pieces that were customizable. She wanted each item to tell its wearer’s story via charms and features that could reveal their personality and interests. “It’s not about the jewelry,” Bella says. “It’s about the meaning behind it.”

Once they had prototypes of their baubles, Bella and her mom made the rounds at local boutiques, getting some to agree to sell the line. They didn’t have much stock at first—remember, this all started with $700!—and they initially had to put any money they earned right back into the business. Still, things went well enough that they wanted to take a shot at selling in their own retail space at a local shopping center. “That was a big leap of faith for us,” Bella says, “because the rent for the mall was $7,000 a month.” The leap paid off, and customers clamored to participate in Origami Owl’s success: “The most common questions we would get were ‘How can I be a part of this?’ and ‘How can I sell this myself?'”

That’s when the company decided to go the direct-sales route, allowing anyone to sign up online to sell jewelry as an independent “designer.” But don’t confuse Origami Owl girls with Tupperware ladies. Taking a page out of its founder’s book, the company encourages kids as young as 12 to become designers (with their parents’ permission, of course) and gain entrepreneurial experience. Over 60,000 designers have signed up so far, and the company was projected to bring in over $250 million last year alone.

Besides her mother, who is Origami Owl’s head of creative, Bella employs other family members too: “I have three uncles that work there right now. Altogether, there have been five!” This helps give the company its family feel, as do the dance breaks they regularly organize. “They’re for when you’re having a tough day and need to get in the mood and get some inspiration,” Bella says. “Sometimes you’ll hear music from upstairs and know everyone’s having a dance party.”

But it’s not all fun and jewelry: Bella attends school full-time and typically heads to the office afterwards to work from 3 to 6. She rotates among different departments in the company to gain experience, though she doesn’t expect special treatment. For one rotation, she worked in the company’s call center, answering phones and fielding e-mails just like everyone else. “The phone would ring, and I would say, ‘Hello, this is Olive from Origami Owl,'” she explains. “I’d just make up names because I didn’t want people to know it was me.”

Chances are it won’t be long before everyone has heard of this teen mogul, who did, in fact, end up earning more than enough cash to buy herself a car: She now drives a white Jeep. Yes, Bella’s certainly living the much-deserved charmed life, in more ways than one.