Beautiful Curly Me: How 12-year-old Zoe Oli created a company that’s brought in more than $100,000

At age 6, Zoe Oli asked her mom a question: “Why isn’t my hair straight and pretty like my classmates’? I don’t like my hair.”

There weren’t many other Black girls at Zoe’s school, and she got questions and criticism from her peers. “I was really taken aback when she came to me with that,” Zoe’s mother, Evana, tells CNBC Make It. “I was troubled by what she said [and] I was very sad. … I immediately went into mommy mode.”

Evana, 42, bought Zoe a Black doll to play with, but the doll too had straight hair — so Zoe suggested creating dolls with curls, coils and braids.

“At first, my mom did not take me seriously. She kind of brushed me off,” Zoe says. “And I kept on asking her, ‘Mommy, when are we going to start my business?’ After begging her for a couple of months, she realized that I was really serious about it.”

Evana, an Atlanta-based marketing consultant with over 15 years of experience, withdrew $5,000 from her savings, which went toward designing a prototype and securing an affordable manufacturer, she says.

It took about a year to create the physical product, an 18-inch doll with brown skin and textured hair. In 2019, when she was seven, Zoe became the CEO of Beautiful Curly Me, though she mostly handles the creative aspects of the business. Evana is responsible for most of the company’s administrative operations, from setting budgets to drawing up contracts. She lets Zoe listen in on legal and financial meetings so her daughter will be prepared to run the company on her own one day.

The brand now includes books, puzzles, journals and natural hair care products. In 2022, Zoe’s company brought in a low six figures in revenue, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. Evana declined to share 2023 revenue.

“The best part is just seeing those little girls and their smiles when they see the dolls,” she says. “It’s been really, really amazing.”

A ‘very hands-on’ tween CEO

Zoe Oli’s life is one giant balancing act, she tells CNBC Make It. The eighth-grader is a straight-A student, highly involved in extracurricular activities like tennis, track and theatre, and a participant in regular sleepovers and hangout sessions at the mall.

That’s on top of her CEO duties: attending meetings, creating social media strategy and product development after school. Evana, who has her own marketing consulting business, says her daughter handles a lot of the work on her own, and she steps in as “mompreneur” whenever she’s needed.

″[Zoe’s] hands are on pretty much everything unless she’s in school,” she says. “She’s talking to the manufacturing teams [about product designs]. She’s a very hands-on entrepreneur.”

The 12-year-old has added a TEDx speaker, college lecturer, and start-up accelerator founder to her resume. Moreover, she’s received several grants to help drive her business forward, including $10,000 from Verizon’s Small Business Digital Ready program in 2023 and another $10,000 from Visa’s She’s Next Black Women-Owned Business Grant.

Such a busy schedule can be a lot, she admits, but her mom makes sure she isn’t spreading herself too thin. “I’ve learned how to prioritize my time,” Zoe says. “My mom and my team really helped with that. She’ll tell me when I’m working too hard.”

‘I definitely want to continue the business’

Zoe expects to keep running and growing Beautiful Curly Me through high school and beyond. “I definitely want to continue the business. My big goal is to impact the lives of a million girls in the next five years,” she says. ”[I plan to] do that through new products, launching our nonprofit, offering [marketing and product development] courses … just continuing to grow our social impact.”

This summer, the brand introduced a line of plush dolls at Target, making Zoe the youngest CEO to launch a toy brand at the retail giant, according to a press release from Beautiful Curly Me.

All of the money her company makes is put back into the business, Zoe says, and though she’s in no rush to bring on outside investors, she doesn’t rule out the idea. “I, personally, am a little reluctant to give up [equity] because the business is my baby,” she says. “But I think we’re open to it if the right one comes along.”

Evana’s top priority is making sure Zoe enjoys her childhood to the fullest, she says.

“There’s a lot demanding her attention at every point in time,” says Evana. ”[But] it’s important for the child to still be a child. I think it’s very important to be intentional about making sure she still enjoys being a 12-year-old girl.”