Have you heard about the 17-year-old entrepreneur who’s three-year-old company is on track to earn $250 million this year?

When Isabella Weems was 14 years old, she really wanted a new car. So she spent her time hosting jewelry parties and selling lockets instead of hanging out with her friends.

Now, Bella (as she’s called) not only has a white Jeep she calls Alice, she’s also the founder of a wildly popular custom jewelry business known as Origami Owl.

Who would have thought that my dream of wanting to buy a car for my sixteenth birthday would be the inspiration behind a successful jewelry company?

Origami Owl has thousands of “Independent Designers” who host their own Jewelry Bars® – private parties where they serve up a trendy array of fun jewels directly to shoppers. According to a recent article in Forbes, there’s about 50,000 of these independent designers. That’s a lot of parties!

We tell stories with jewelry.

The company has several branded jewelry lines. The signature Living Lockets® collection gives the wearer a chance to add personality to their jewels with charms, lockets, dangles and chains. Tagged™ is Made in the USA and combines fine pewter tags sporting special words with little charms on a chain, creating a statement about who you are and what you believe in.

Originally, Bella started her locket business with about $700, selling at house parties and boutiques before she set up a mall kiosk near her Arizona home. The company is an all-in-the-family-type affair; Bella’s mom Chrissy helped her develop the product, while her uncles and aunt help run the business, along with other employees. Origami Owl is developing a new platform to help the independent designers run their business with new tools such as training, webinars, instructional videos as well as a mobile app.

Meanwhile, Bella is still going to high school –and considering college- before taking the reins of her profitable company with both hands.

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