{"id":408038,"date":"2010-03-09T14:11:54","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T19:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/green.yahoo.com\/blog\/the_conscious_consumer\/127\/ten-year-old-business-owner.html"},"modified":"2010-03-09T14:11:54","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T19:11:54","slug":"ten-year-old-business-owner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/408038","title":{"rendered":"Ten-year-old business owner"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"Cecilia\n<\/div>\n

Cecilia Cassini is definitely not your average 10-year-old
\nchild. The fifth grader recently founded
\nher own fashion line<\/a> and is making a profit from selling her unique
\nhandmade clothing for kids and teens at Los Angeles boutiques. She’s also been
\nfilling special orders that are coming in from around the world, according to
\nher mother Michelle Cassini.<\/p>\n

Cassini has been dubbed “America’s youngest fashion
\ndesigner,” but that’s only part of her story. She’s a kid with a huge social
\nconscience and a desire to give back. Many of her dresses, for example, are
\nmade from old repurposed clothing that she scores from the closets of her older
\nsister, mom, and friends instead of buying new fabrics. <\/p>\n

This not only saves her
\nmoney on materials, but also is better for the planet. Her mother thinks that
\nher dresses are popular in places like Germany, Italy, and France because they
\nare made from recycled materials. <\/p>\n

\n\"Cecilia\n<\/div>\n

The young fashion maven regularly designs and donates
\ndresses to raise money for charities such as Susan
\nG. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation<\/a>, Doctors Without Borders<\/a>, and Clothes Off Our Backs<\/a>. She also gives
\nher dresses to homeless girls. “I want to give back to the people who don’t
\nhave what I have,” she says. “Every little girl should have a dress so I wanted
\nto donate dresses.” <\/p>\n

Cassini, who lives in Encino, California, travels to classrooms
\nat other schools to inspire her peers to pursue their dreams and do what they
\nare passionate about. Her message: You don’t have to be an adult to do
\nworthwhile things. <\/p>\n

According to her
\nmom, Cassini’s passion has always been clothing. From the time Cassini could point, she was putting together her own outfits, and
\nshe regularly came home from preschool with designs painted or glued onto
\nher clothing. <\/p>\n

But it wasn’t until Cassini secretly “redesigned” her older
\nsister’s brand-new dress at the ripe old age of five that her family fully understood just
\nhow interested she was in designing clothing. <\/p>\n

She received a sewing machine for her sixth birthday from her
\ngrandmother and went immediately to work. “From the moment she got that machine,
\nshe has not stopped sewing,” says her mom, who didn’t expect Cassini’s interest
\nto last for so long or turn into a business. <\/p>\n

\n\"trunk\n<\/div>\n

In fact, Michelle Cassini was worried that no one was going
\nto show up at her daughter’s first trunk show at Tough Cookies Children’s Boutique<\/a> in
\nSherman Oaks, California, on November 14, 2009. It turns out her worries were
\nunfounded. <\/p>\n

People lined up outside the store before it opened, thanks to some
\ngood publicity, including a CBS segment<\/a>
\nand a front-page story in the Los Angeles Daily News<\/a><\/em>.
\nHer trunk show was sold out and she’s been busy filling orders ever since. <\/p>\n

Cassini seems to be taking
\nher early success in stride and finds time to sew dozens of dresses a week,
\nmaintain good grades, play tennis, and hang out with her friends. How does she do it? She gets most of
\nher homework done at recess so she can come home and sew. <\/p>\n

Besides, she doesn’t
\nview it as work. The whole process is pure fun, according to Cassini, from the
\ncutting up of old dresses to sewing them into fabulous new “masterpieces” to
\nselling the finished products. <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\"Cecilia\"Cecilia<\/p>\n

All photos courtesy of Michelle Cassini. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips
\nand product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question<\/p>\n

or suggestion<\/a> for potential use in a future column. Her book,<\/em>
\nGreen Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a
\nPart of Your Life is available on Yahoo!<\/p>\n

Shopping<\/a> and Amazon.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Check out Yahoo! Green on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cecilia Cassini is definitely not your average 10-year-old child. The fifth grader recently founded her own fashion line and is making a profit from selling her unique handmade clothing for kids and teens at Los Angeles boutiques. She’s also been filling special orders that are coming in from around the world, according to her mother […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3953,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-408038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3953"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408038\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}