Girl Entrepreneur #002
Name: Anabelle Lockwood
Location: Orange County, California
Business Name: The Loco Lemon
Based in Orange County, California, Anabelle Lockwood launched her business The Loco Lemon at just 10 years old. The young entrepreneur combines her grandmother’s lemonade recipe with home-cooked fruit sauces to make hybrid flavours like watermelon, peach and mango. Her artisanal lemonade stand continues to grow in popularity with the local community.
With a little help from her mother, Anabelle received permission from local businesses and moved her lemonade stand to sell outside their premises. What was originally a small venture based in Anabelle’s front garden quickly became a flourishing business.
Anabelle’s business hit the headlines in 2016 when the Orange County Health Care Agency required that she upgrade her lemonade cart to commercial standards, buy insurance and obtain licenses to operate in commercial kitchens in order for her to continue trading and to expand into corporate events and weddings. This put huge monetary pressure on Anabelle and her family. To pay for this The Loco Lemon launched a Go Fund Me campaign to reach the $2,500 expense; this gained national media interest as people across America wanted to contribute to this young entrepreneur’s business and encourage her to think big.
As a result, Anabelle is now able to attend numerous local events with her lemonade cart and, despite the seasonal aspect of her business, she sold out her Christmas cranberry lemonade over the most recent festive period!
Anabelle hopes to inspire other children to use their “#kidpower” to start their own ventures. Furthermore, The Loco Lemon twitter page answers direct messages from children who want advice on how to go about doing this. She continues to post inspirational photos and videos on The Loco Lemon facebook page to motivate other young people to set and pursue their entrepreneurial goals.
-Phoebe Cawley
Junior Girl
Girl Museum Inc.