LauriPatterson/iStockBy ERIC NOLL and KELLY MCCARTHY, ABC News
(DENVER) — As many people have found comfort with cooking amid the coronavirus pandemic, one pair of sisters have turned their passion for sweets into a fully baked business plan.
The two young pastry enthusiats from Highlands Ranch, Colorado — 11-year-old Zyaire Hawkins and her 9-year-old sister Char’Les — created Little Sistas Treats in June.
“We started planning it out on paper — our flavors and what we would do with our cones,” Zyaire told ABC News Denver affiliate KMGH-TV.
The siblings developed a special cheesecake-filled ice cream cone recipe and launched their dessert-centric venture.
The two girls “have business meetings. They are serious about this thing,” their mom, Marietta Hawkins, told KMGH with a laugh.
Hawkins said that she brought her daughters to Sugar Sisters Bakery, a local female-run pastry shop in Castle Rock, Colorado, a month after she had told co-owners Molly Witt and Rebekah Lydon about what her daughters had been making.
The young entrepreneurs had an instant connection with the store’s owners. Plus, an unexpected treat.
Co-owners Molly Witt and Rebekah Lydon surprised them with $1,015 to help kickstart their budding business.
“They’re a startup business. They’re in our community and these poor young girls just started a business in the middle of a pandemic,” Lydon told ABC News’ David Muir in a video message on World News Tonight.
“These are two young black girls who want to own their business and with everything going on we wanted to be authentic with how we navigated the issue,” Lydon also told KMGH.
The bakery owners said the community has helped them stay afloat during the pandemic and that they decided to use the donations to pay it forward to the girls.
Zyaire and Char’Les told World News Tonight anchor David Muir that their hope is to “hire other young girls” and “inspire other young children to be their own CEO.”
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