13-year-old Cooktown student Kayla Louw has found success in her new 3D printed fidget toy business. Photo: Supplied.
Not many 13-year-olds can call themselves a successful entrepreneur, but one Cooktown girl’s star is on the rise after making over $400 in just two months with her new 3D printed fidget toy business.
Endeavour Christian College student Kayla Louw was celebrated at her school assembly last week for successfully applying her business class skills to real life with her Shopify storefront, Flame X 3D.
The 13-year-old said she currently offered a collection of figurines and toys created with articulated joints, making them both cute display pieces and fun to fidget with.
“At the moment, I’m 3D printing fidgets and articulated toys,” Kayla said.
“I like making and designing new things to print.”
Although she hasn’t made any original designs yet, she said that was on the radar as she works towards her next big goal of expanding the business.
“I want to make a few more things to sell and more of my own designs, and maybe expanding to multiple printers so we can do the business more,” she said.
Her father, Josh Louw, said Kayla has always been creative and business savvy, and a new 3D printer set off the “fireworks” in her brain.
“She often comes up to me showing me ‘something we can make and sell’, so when I bought a 3D printer for my business, she immediately dropped everything she was doing, and I pretty much have not had a proper chance to use it myself,” he said.
“Kayla’s secret weapon is her ADHD, which allows her to think multiple steps ahead while the rest of us are still trying to figure out what happened.
“She can easily spend days all by herself building contraptions with Lego, rubber bands, a glue gun and cardboard – things you would never think go together, never mind being functional and working.
“I often say to Amanda, my wife, ‘I don’t know what she is going to do or be when she leaves school, but it is going to be spectacular’.”
Kayla’s business-savvy mind was celebrated at the school assembly. Photo: Jacynta Hunt.
