Just like Cinderella in days of yore, young women today have little chance of being invited to the “main event” without figuring out a clever way to get themselves through the royal velvet ropes on their own steam. With staggering unemployment rate among teens and recent college grads, it’s no wonder that teens are changing their thinking about the traditional routes to success, and inventing their own disrupted models for achieving their happily ever after.
When we first meet Cinderella in the fairy tale, she’s saddled with a wicked stepmother, and two wicked stepsisters, and is basically grounded for life. Poor Cinderella spends all day every day cleaning fireplaces, scrubbing the floors, and separating beans and lentils, which are not exactly valuable bullet points on a college application. To make matters worse, she is covered in soot from head to toe, clearly an occupational hazard, has never seen the inside of a salon, and sleeps curled up on the hearth by the ashes. Clearly her circumstances would make it a little difficult to develop a distinct and eye-catching signature style, and get up in the morning feeling rested andinspired to go looking for a better paying job with benefits and the hope of future advancement.
And yet somehow Cinderella not only manages to get herself invited to the event of the season, but becomes the belle of the ball and the talk of the kingdom, and gains power to rule her own kingdom, long before the prince ever arrives on the scene.
In other words, Cinderella is no sleeping beauty who just passes out on a bed of roses and waits for the handsome prince to arrive. Cinderella is a self-determined and an innovative entrepreneur, a born CEO with a killer marketing instinct, and a great sense of herself. She designs and launches her own campaign to make her vision—a better life—a reality. Far from an irrelevant anachronism from a more magical and innocent, not to mention patriarchal, time, Cinderella is actually an icon for today’s entrepreneurial age.
When you think about her that way, Cinderella has a lot in common with the young and inspirational CEOs who are taking the business world by storm these days, sometimes before the age of fifteen!Today’s successful young CEOs throw themselves into their work, always envisioning a brighter future. Thanks to their dedication, innovation, and vision, they are able to reveal a glittering glass carriage where before there had only been a pumpkin because they understand and employ the very same principles that Cinderella did.
Here are a couple of our favorite young Cinderella CEO’s who are putting their minds to work in their own lives and businesses:
Jessica Cervantes-CEO, PopsyCakes
Cinderella’s campaign would never have gotten off the ground unless she was able to articulate her plan. Suddenly, when Cinderella is able to wish out loud, her fairy godmother appears with all of the magic and confidence that she needs to make that wish come true. In today’s business world, the most effective way to wish out loud is write a business plan.
Jessica had loved experimenting with ingredients ever since her grandma taught her to bake. When she was only sixteen years old, she turned her passion into profit and developed her unique spin on the cupcake called PopsyCakes, which are cupcakes served on a pretzel stick. But it wasn’t until Jessica became a part of the International Business and Finance Academy at John A. Ferguson Senior High school that baking and business came together in a brand-new recipe for success.
Adele Ann Taylor CEO Literacy Library
One of the most important lessons that Cinderella’s fairy godmother teaches her is that she already has most of what she will need to take her to the ball, as long as she learns how to make the most of what she has on hand.
When Adele Taylor was thirteen, she noticed that some of her peers struggled with reading and realized that many people have little access to books. Yet she and a lot of people she knew had plenty of books lying around. So she launched a book donation program. Today, Adele’s Literacy Library gives everyone, regardless of age, access to the books they need to achieve literacy. Since its founding in 2008, Literacy Library group has distributed more than 5,000 books.
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Adrienne Arieff and Beverly West are the authors of Fairy-Tale Success: A Guide to Entrepreneurial Magic, which is due out from Adams Media in September 2014.
Adrienne Arieff is a PR, digital and marketing communications professional with 20 years professional experience globally and in the US. Her clients have included: Lexus, Jamba Juice, adidas, method, Equinox Fitness and Kohler. This is her third book. She has written for the New York Times and C Magazine.
Bev West was a national spokesperson for Netflix and the lead writer for Monster.com’s Work/Life Balance area. Her work has been featured in People, Redbook, Marie Claire, and the New York Times.
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