This 11-Year-Old Entrepreneur Is Saving Bees With Her Lemonade Recipe

According to her website, Mikaila’s entrepreneurial journey began at the ripe old age of 4, the same age at which I did little more than play and watch baseball. Thanks to some encouragement from her family, Mikaila entered a children’s business competition using her grandmother’s famous flaxseed lemonade recipe.

During her preparation for the competition, Mikaila was stung by two bees, an initially challenging experience that quickly transitioned into a fascination with the flying insect. Through some research, Mikaila quickly learned about the current plight of bees, and discovered how fundamental they happen to be to the global ecosystem. (Learn more about this HERE.)

To merge these two worlds together, Mikaila decided to infuse her grandmother’s lemonade recipe with locally sourced honey, creating a truly savoury drink she calls BeeSweet.

Since that point, Mikaila has been a symbol of inspiration and success, selling out of her product at every entrepreneurial event she has attended. To help protect her flying friends she also donates a percentage of her profits to local and international organizations fighting to save honeybees.

Mikaila’s success story was taken to a whole new level when she appeared on the TV series Shark Tank, where individuals pitch business ideas in hopes of receiving financing. Her ingenuity and idea managed to capture the interest of one of the “sharks,” landing her $60,000 USD in exchange for 25% of the company. You can see more about this, and the rest of Mikaila’s incredible story, in this ABC News feature:

Thankfully, Mikaila is not alone in the category of remarkable children and young adults that are actively making a difference in this world. Rachel Parent, Boyan Slat, and Bindi Irwin are just 3 of many others that I wrote about in the article These Remarkable Kids/Teens Give Us Hope For Humanity’s Future.

Given that more and more kids seem to be getting lost in the lure of mind-numbing technology at younger and younger ages, it’s very refreshing to come across stories like Mikaila’s. It shows that the future of the world may actually be in good hands, especially if we do our part in supporting these acts of ingenuity.

To help support BeeSweet, I encourage you all to check out their website. If you are in the United States, also be sure to use their store locator page to find a local supermarket or Whole Foods carrying it near you.

Mark DeNicola Joined the CE team in 2010 as a Writer, Director & Admin. — Be sure to check out our new CE YouTube series 'These Guys' featuring myself and Joe Martino. — My other passion in life is acting, you can find out more about that side of me by visiting IMDB and my personal acting website: www.mark-denicola.com. I'm also doing the Instagram thing now!