By Kimberly Jenkins
The Portsmouth Daily Times, Ohio
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) 12 year old Grace Ann Bennett started making her own line of makeup after she couldn’t find products that were suitable for tweens.
The Portsmouth Daily Times, Ohio
Young girls like listening to music, dancing, watching videos and movies, and possibly even making things. But most just want to have fun. Fun may be different for every girl, but they want to do something that makes them happy and that they enjoy.
Grace Ann Bennett looks and acts like any other typical 12-year-old girl. But there is nothing typical about Grace, because she is already an entrepreneur in the field of cosmetics.
In January, Grace started making her own line of makeup, because both she and her mother Julia could not find makeup suitable for girls in their tweens and early teenage years. Grace also wanted to make something that was safe and organic.
“There wasn’t any products out there that were suitable, or they didn’t have appropriate things” for girls in her age range. Grace says she worked on different recipes and took different elements until she came up with something that she liked. She started with facial makeup.
“Grace does everything herself,” Julia says. She says that when it came time that Grace wanted to wear some makeup and they started looking, everything was geared more toward older girls with the wording and packaging and so forth. She knew she wasn’t going to let her 12-year-old wear that, but on the opposite end was pretend makeup for little girls, and she didn’t want that either.
“Why not have Grace make her own?” a friend of Julia suggested. So Grace started looking online and found some things for her own formula. She used the money from her own savings account to make and get everything. Now her goal is to save and buy her own car.
Gab is the name of her makeup, and it represents two very important things. First, Grace’s name is Grace Ann Bennett, and it also stands for Girls are Beautiful. This, too, was Grace’s idea. After the name was picked, her mom’s friend who had worked in graphic arts helped her come up with the design for gab, with the “g” designed similar a little open compact.
Grace has several types of makeup for her gab line. She has named and created each one by herself. “I have eye shadows, and one of the names is Slumber Party,” she says. “Another is Outfield Shimmer, then Summer Vacation and Dance Recital.” She has two blushes: First Day of School and First Crush. “I have a bronzer called Day at the Beach, and powder that is Girl Powder.”
Grace has several other names for makeup, and some of the makeup she has in groups, too. She wants it all school-related, but she wanted it to relate to all types of girls — studious, athletic or just girls period. And, not to forget, all her makeup is geared toward the younger ladies looking for things that fit their age. Anyone who is interested in Grace’s makeup, can find it on Etsy at www.etsy.com/shop/girlsarebeautiful
Grace, at this point, still makes it all herself in her kitchen, which she and her mother call her lab. “I have done two big orders, and it is time consuming,” Grace admits.
In addition to her makeup line, she still manages to keep up with her school work and is very involved in Cirque d’Art. She has learned to manage her time, according to her mom and herself, “but this is fun for her, and that makes it easier,” Julia adds. If Mom offers to help her daughter, she will tell her no, because she wants to do it on her own. “It’s her business, she paid for it and I want it to be, It’s geared toward girls her age, so I want it to be from her,” Mom says.
Grace says her friends think it is very cool that she has her own makeup line, and when asked who her best friend is, she begins naming names like Ally McCray, Emily Cram, Mya Shonkwiler, Meredith Byrd and Katie Ramey, showing that Grace is a friend to many and an all-around girl. She says her friends have all tried her makeup, but that her family — like her mom and younger sister Madelyn — were her main “guinea pigs.”
The family is very busy, what with Grace’s makeup, along with Madelyn, who is 10 years old, but is passionate about helping Sierra’s Haven for pets and constantly collecting donations of money and supplies, and delivers the donations and then volunteers her time also. Grace says she is proud of her little sister.
Then, for Grace, add in the normal everyday things families do and all the rest of the things they each do. Grace just recently went to the United Nations for schools in Columbus with her friends, representing the country of Chile as their choice of countries to represent.
It is their first year to be able to enter this program, and she really enjoys it. She participates in Cirque d’Art, and attends her church in Wheelersburg, The Cornerstone Nazarene, plus she is involved in things like the Science Fair, just like any other girl her age. But then she works and has her great business she started.
Grace started selling her gab makeup on the Etsy store, and sold quite a bit through that. Now, the Minford High School cheerleaders are selling it as a fundraiser.
So does Grace see herself expanding to maybe a store front, getting people to work for her and what it would take?
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She says she does, and her mom adds that she really does love it. Mom says if you love what you are doing, it makes the quality of your work better. She would know, as Julia is a well-known author herself. While talking about expanding and then eventually meeting with companies and business people, Grace says she believes she can handle that, and she shows the characteristics of a very mature young lady who could handle the day-to-day success of a business. Her mom says Grace is shy, but this has already helped her so much.
They are now working on trademarking the makeup line’s name to protect it from being used by someone else. Mom says it has just gotten bigger than either of them anticipated, and Grace chimes in quickly with an immediate affirmation. They both say they are going to look for Grace to have her own website, but haven’t yet set one up.
Grace says that if her business grows so much that she is unable to attend school, she would love to be home-schooled. She says she has begged to be home-schooled, that she just really doesn’t like school. Her dad, Michael, they say, would not want her to do that right now.
Grace reveals that she has another place interested in selling her makeup. “For the month of May, there is this subscription box called the Better Box, and it is like all organic makeup and stuff that is geared toward young teens, and things that help them take better care of their bodies and things. They want my makeup in their box.” To be sure, there are many things available by subscription, and this particular one wants to put Grace’s gab in theirs to have her sell.
Meeting Grace Ann Bennett and learning all about gab proves that even the youngest girls can do whatever they want if they set their minds to it. Grace is prospering and is prepared for just that.
She is on the road to becoming a very successful young lady, even at the young age of 12. She has already accomplished a lot, and looks to be on the road to achieving big things. It will be a start on which she can look back and know that she did it all on her own.
