For most teenagers, the immediate future involves deciding which class is next. For 19-year-old Milly Wang, the horizon is occupied by her next restaurant concept.

Milly has opened Farmily, her second business venture, and this time, the hyper-successful teen is deliberately pressing the brakes. Moving from the quick-service model of her first enterprise,  EIS Engelchen, Farmily is designed as a space to slow down. The concept is simple: a place to grab a quality sandwich, linger with friends, and take home fresh-baked pastries.

Stepping inside, the atmosphere immediately communicates that intention. The scent of fresh bread drifts through the air, settling over wooden tables bathed in soft light. The effect is one that’s warm and calm, a stark contrast to the typical pace of fast food.

That tranquility is rooted in a philosophy of provenance. Their bread is baked on-site using grain sourced directly from a farm, reflecting Milly’s belief that knowing where your food comes from is essential. This attention to detail is a lesson learned from her previous experience running an ice cream shop, where she discovered how small, intentional choices can define a space.

While the buttery croissants are the daily stars, often selling out before the day is over. Milly’s personal favorite is a quieter offering: the yogurt bowl. Featuring zero-sugar yogurt, homemade granola, and a drizzle of fresh honeycomb, it represents the kind of wholesome, crafted food she wants to be known for.

Managing the launch of a restaurant while attending college is a monumental balancing act. Milly admits the hardest part is the daily mental shift required to toggle between the mindset of a student and that of a business owner.

Ultimately, Farmily is more than just a business expansion; it is a personal project. With this new venture, Milly is aiming to build a sanctuary—not only for her customers seeking a respite from their day but also a quiet space for herself.

Looking for more family-friendly dining recommendations? Join the FamFriendlyEats group on WeChat by scanning the QR code below.

Inspired? We know we are! If you’re a teen with an incredible achievement, let us know! Get in touch with Mina Yan via email at minayan@beijing-kids.com or WeChat (ID: Wilhelmina87).Find it:
No. A1, Xiyang Hutong, Beixinqiao Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing
(Enter South Park through the West Gate and go 20 meters to the right)

Tel: 13811486972

There’s something genuinely delightful about watching a young person discover their creative voice – especially when that discovery happens through what most of us would simply call a mistake.

Ayanvitta is a 13-year-old student at Tsinghua International School in grade 8 who takes the opportunity to turn boredom into opportunities to design and create.

Most people would look at a misshapen crochet sphere and leave it at that, but Ayanvitta saw a whale. One December afternoon in 2024, she was simply practicing a double crochet stitch, working with blue yarn, when something unexpected happened. The sphere she’d intended to make curved differently than planned. Instead of frogging the whole thing and starting over, she paused and looked at what sat in her hands. To her, it resembled her whale plushy. So she kept going, adding fins, stitching a tail, letting the accident guide her. A week later, she made a bigger version. Then another. What began as a practice exercise became the accidental birth of a signature creation.

This willingness to embrace the unexpected runs through everything Ayanvitta creates. She’s built a following on WeChat under the handle Ayanvitta23, where she shares her 3D-printed experiments and crochet projects with an audience that appreciates watching her process unfold in real-time. Her work spans traditional crafts and emerging technology, from yarn to CAD software, from stitches to code.

I really loved how you said Whaley came from boredom.  Does it bother you when other kids are on their devices, and you’re not?

At first, yes. When everyone around you is on a phone or tablet, it can feel like you’re missing out. But over time, that feeling changed. I realized that while others were spending time online, I was learning new skills and creating things that meant something to me. Especially when I started writing my blogs on weekends and seeing articles get published, I felt rewarded. Now I don’t really feel bothered—I just focus on what I’m working on. Many friends of mine also don’t have a phone.

Make a case – teen to teen – why boredom is a good thing.

Boredom isn’t always bad. When there’s nothing to do, your mind starts wandering, and that’s when ideas show up. If you’re constantly entertained, you never get the chance to think or create. Being bored pushed me to try new things. For example, I love to crochet, and I have friends who also love to crochet. My teachers at school are always very encouraging; they also taught us knitting and other stuff. I love to crochet whaley, capybara, to name a few. Sometimes, boredom is just your brain asking you to be creative.

What are some of your favorite creations that you’ve made?

My favorite creation is the Functional Whaley Mouse because it represents a lot of learning, patience, and problem-solving. I also enjoy making smaller 3D-printed objects and experimenting with designs, even when they don’t work out. Every project teaches me something new, and that’s what makes creating fun for me. I’ve printed many phone stands for my grandparents and cousins, along with toys. You can see many of these on my WeChat channel, Ayanvitta23. Besides 3D printing, I also love to crochet, which lets me be creative in a different way.Do you feel that it can sometimes be difficult to be creative nowadays when AI can do so much of the thinking for you?

It can be challenging because AI makes things easier and faster. But I don’t think it can replace creativity. AI can help with ideas and tools, but it can’t replace curiosity, imagination, or learning from mistakes. Real creativity comes from trying, failing, and improving—and that’s something you must do yourself.

Tell me a bit about the Harvard Innovation Challenge Program, where you received 2^nd prize. What is it? What was your submission?

The Harvard Innovation Challenge Program is a global competition that encourages students to create innovative solutions to real-world problems. I received second prize for my project called DoneGlow. DoneGlow is an intuitive medication reminder system designed to help elderly people avoid confusion about their daily medicines. The idea for DoneGlow came from a personal experience with my grandparents. My grandmother asked me several times whether she had taken her morning medicine, even though she had phone reminders. This made me realize that reminders alone aren’t always enough, and that a simple visual system could be more effective.

You’re clearly very self-motivated. What does a typical weekend look like for you?

A typical weekend for me would be 60% of time devoted to homework and tests, 25% of my time crocheting and 15% of my time designing. Hanging out would be kind of rare, as we have a ton of tests, and sometimes we’re kind of tired and just want some time to relax at home. You’ve already accomplished so much. Looking ahead to high school, what’s a new skill you’re excited to learn, or a type of project you haven’t tried yet but want to?

In high school, I’d love to explore more advanced engineering and maybe even robotics. I’m especially interested in combining design with electronics—creating products that are not only well-designed on the outside but also smart on the inside.I also want to learn more about programming and product development, so I can turn ideas into complete, real-world solutions. I’ve recently fallen in love with coding languages and want to take it further in high school.

For now, I mainly share my 3D-printed creations on my WeChat channel, Ayanvitta23, where people can see what I’m working on. When the blog does go public, I hope it can inspire others to start creating too—not just to read about my projects, but to try their own ideas as well.

Images: Ayanvitta

On Jun 20, the second Celestial Charity Fair happened at Novotown in Zhuhai. It was a fair organized by myself and some friends at my new school. This was my first time organizing the fair. However, my first ever experience in organizing charity fairs was back in second grade, and this was my journey.

I was part of the student council back in second grade, and we were looking for ways to donate to charity within the school unit. Back at Beijing City International School (BCIS), the awareness of donation and helping others in need was spread throughout every corner of the school, and of course, when I was in student council, it was one of the main targets for our work. I remember so clearly that I simply talked to some of my friends in my homeroom class, asking them if they were up for the work, and after I got myself a team of three or four people, I went to Walmart (back when Walmart still had a store in Beijing) with my mom that evening to pick up some snacks and drinks to sell at the event. I had someone on my team make a poster for it, spread the word around the grade, and I even was smart enough to think that some people might forget to bring money to pay for the things they’d buy, so I made a chart to record their names, grade, and homeroom class so that I could keep track and hunt them down the next day. It was towards the end of the school year when we organized the fair (literally one day before the end of the school year, to be exact), so we were in a big rush, but we still successfully raised a few hundred RMB for the charity Help a Child Smile, and I was very satisfied.

The last day of school was a half day, and Grade 2 had a picnic on the hill of the playground. Even though I did hunt down the people who did not pay the day before at the event, they still had forgotten to bring cash, so I made them give me a few of their snacks they brought to the picnic as a form of trade. As I recall this event right now in eighth grade, I feel extremely grateful that I had the opportunity to host this event and raise that amount of money in just one lunch break, with so many people running towards that bench that wrapped around the gingko tree because they were so excited about the fact that they could buy snacks. Even though I did not make any money from that experience, it set me up for hosting a similar event again in third grade.

I hosted a similar event again in third grade, at the same location, with a few more people on the team, and perhaps the lesson learned was that I have to make people pay or else there will be less money raised. I remember making over a thousand RMB in third grade from the charity event, and we donated to the same charity that year. Some people in the grade were impressed by the team’s organization. No teacher was really involved in the process, and no teacher even complimented us for our efforts, but they only looked at us in suspicion, thinking that all of this might not have been true. My journey of holding charity events was put on hold until I came to my current school in Zhuhai.

My friend Brian, who is currently in ninth grade, is the founder of the Celestial Charity Fair, and he first held this event at school last year when he was in eighth grade.

This year, the revenue from the event not only helped the homeless dogs in Guangdong, part of the money also went to the Guangdong Lions Club’s Sea of Stars team, which is an organization that helps children with autism and their families. Organizing the event with Brian this year was a very different experience to what I did in second and third grade.

Before, I had bought my own products to sell, but here we had vendors from both in school and out of school come to the fair to sell their own goods. Thus, we faced issues with not having enough vendors, not being able to find a sponsor, and also not being able to get enough prizes for the lucky draw (even though we ended up with perhaps a few too many prizes, to the point where some people were numb to some of them at the end). My sustainable fashion brand Eco Apparel sponsored seven discount vouchers in the lucky draw, in hopes of more people being interested in the brand. I found out that once we got more parties and different people in the team, we were able to gain so many more diverse aspects into the event, which made it a lot more fun for customers. For example, one parent from the PTA even got three horses to come to the event so that people could experience what horse-riding was like. Another teacher got an Italian bakery to attend, and their pizzas and breads were delicious. Brian, being a music enthusiast, got his band to perform at the event. So, having a team is definitely more effective than trying to handle everything by yourself.

After experiencing how organizing an event is like on different scales, I of course, will not be stopping there – hosting a MUN conference is also on my to-do list for this year, so let us look forward to that, shall we?

Spending so much time on and putting so much effort into something that you may not seem to directly benefit from may seem like a “waste” to you – but it is important for kids to know that when they are fortunate enough to be able to have a shelter, water, food and education, it becomes their duty as humans to give back and to let the differences caused by injustice be eliminated as much as possible. If we are able, others should be able as well. If your child wants to host a charity fair in their community or school, they can find a charity to collaborate with from their school, or Roundabout (they sometimes put their donation boxes in schools if they are a collaborator, so you can inquire if your school is a connected school). Help a Child Smile is also a charity that a lot of schools have connections with in Beijing. Those two charities are both focused on helping underprivileged children, and if you have another cause that you want to help, you can always donate to them through their website or online platforms.

Images: Margaret Yang

Running a business from the ground up is hard, especially when you are only 13 years old and do not have any proper investment or any professional team. However, effort and trying things out definitely outweigh the effectiveness of a daydream of success. So, this is what I am planning to do with my business in the summer to hopefully clear the inventory.

Step 1: Spread awareness

The first thing that I plan to do is DM influencers on Red Note (the exact platform I am running my business on) to see if they are willing to promote my brand for free or perhaps for a small amount of money. There are quite a few bloggers on the platform that have around 1,000 followers, are taking footage of fashion (perhaps not professional fashion bloggers but more lifestyle and vlog-based), and will look good in the dress we made.

Instead of trying to make our account go viral like Skims or another international brand too quickly, we’re going to be focusing on building a smaller, niche community – groups of micro-influencers with their small but loyal fanbase. After we have gained trust and loyalty within the fanbase, we can then focus on expansion on a larger scale.

My business’s current Red Note account does not have a ton lot of followers that allow us to thrive, so it is essential that we find external support so that we can at least get more people interested in the concept of sustainable fashion and vegan textiles. Probably 90 percent of my screen time is occupied by Red Note, so if only I could use this time to search for appropriate vloggers to support my business instead of mindlessly scrolling…

Step 2: Step up my social media game

The second thing that I plan on doing is to film more vlogs on my personal channel. I have a personal Red Note account that I am currently running, and I sometimes post videos of me skating, my “digital diary” of my thoughts on some stuff happening in life, and some other content relevant to my work. If I post more vlogs and allow more people to see what is going on in my life, they may be more interested in the products I make, which is how I would want to let them be willing to buy the dresses. I have vlogged before, but that was for my YouTube channel (you can find the channel by searching “Unit-E Podcast”), and I kept ranting and talking so much to the point where one vlog was an hour long and the views were not as much as I thought it would be.

I need to make my videos concise and in line with the current trends on social media. This means getting familiar with script writing, makeup, lighting, shooting, and editing. Once I start posting those vlogs, hopefully I can get more people.

Step 3: Drive sales

The third thing that I plan on doing is to sprinkle out more discounts over the summer as more people will be out playing and enjoying their time, and they will probably be in need of getting more clothes (the biggest one of all would be before school starts, and that could be for a back-to-school clothes haul), so a discount is needed to get people attracted to our products.

I got extra inventory from our manufacturer before we officially launched our first product through my vlogs, but also posting plogs (picture blogs) of my life in the summer, OOTD and styling tip videos could be the “model pictures” of the product, and that would hopefully make the product seem more suitable to wear in everyday life. This was a problem for our current product because people think that it looks very casual, probably too casual, to the point where it looks like pajamas, but if you pair it with the right clothes, it elevates the dress so much more (you can visit Eco Apparel’s Red Note page for more inspiration). I even wore this dress for my Shakespeare monologue for drama class! It’s all about how you style it, and giving our customers suggestions can help them come up with their own ideas.

Running a business is hard, but with the right direction and methods, more people will know the brand, and more people would be interested in sustainable fashion.

Check out our brand on Red Note by scanning the QR code below. Be sure to follow us!

If you’ve got business advice, please leave it in the comment section below. I’d love to hear it!

Images: Margaret Yang

As my final exams conclude, I honestly feel that my skills have improved a lot in terms of the way I learn. Before, I used to simply read over my notes and try to remember what was on that page by memorization, but that usually resulted in me being unsure about the content, and that would make me nervous about what I was writing in the exam. However, after this semester’s exams, I can safely say that I have concluded some of the most effective study tips that will turn your child into a top student.

Writing From Memory

This first method is essentially listing down all the things you know about the topic. You will first, of course, need to know what topics are being tested in the exam, then use that list of topics to write down everything you have learned about those topics. For example, in chemistry, we learned about the reactivity series, so I wrote down the reactivity series, their element formulae, and why carbon and hydrogen are in the series, which is everything we have learned this semester on the reactivity series. If I have missed something, I don’t look back immediately when I am writing. I wait until I have finished listing all the content for all the topics of the exam, then I revise. I revise with the notes I have taken in class and additional information online or from other resources. If anything does not match or if anything confuses you, you should ask a teacher or anyone who has knowledge on the validity of information and the content for the exam. You should be doing this seven days before the exams and consecutively until the night before (or ideally, the day of the exam as well, if you have enough time). I took a picture of my notes for my teacher the night before the exam and asked her if my notes were comprehensive and accurate. And after she verified my list, she said that it was no problem, which reassured me that my exams would go well. You can use this method to test how well you know the content of the test, and know how much more you need to improve on.

Set Questions for Yourself

This was also what I did for my finals. I made questions for myself on the parts I was unsure about, and I did them the next morning to see if what I had learned the previous night was actually grasped by me. It could be any type of questions: directly asking questions and writing out the answer, fill in the blanks, or even multiple choice questions that include choices that you originally misunderstood. This method may take some time to put together, but when you are in the exam, you may encounter a question on the same knowledge point, and that is the moment you realize what the question is asking you to do and what it is testing. Once you get all the questions you have set correct, that is when you know you have fully understood all the parts you didn’t grasp at first. This was how I got a 91 out of 100 on my Chinese midterms when memorizing the facts about authors and poem lines. Even though a lot of what I tested myself on was not included in the test, this is a very efficient way of knowing what you still need to improve on for the exam, and it makes you ready for whatever is coming up.

Teach to Others

When I was revising for my physics exam, there was a student in the class who did not pay attention to the teacher for the entire semester and was incredibly worried about her grade and what she knew. Before teaching her, I was quite confident that I knew everything about what was being taught, and I thought that I was able to explain everything with ease. However, after she asked me a lot of questions on the subject and after teaching her the concepts, I soon realized that there were still a lot of small details that I was not sure about, and those details were actually big key points in the exam. Thus, teaching another person is never a waste of time, but rather a great way to let yourself know what you need to improve on and whether you have completely grasped the subject.

Those are the three biggest revision methods I used this semester, and they helped me improve a lot in the sciences as well as in Chinese, which are all subjects that require us to memorize a lot of information. The key point here is to not passively read and look over everything, but to actively test yourself and seek help when you need to. I hope these methods will help your child improve their skills during the summer and make them a confident student in the future.

Images: Pexels

I have attended seven Model United Nations (MUN) conferences; I have chaired two of those and won awards as a delegate in four. However, out of those conferences, there was only one I have gone to another city to attend, and that is BCISMUN II, the one I have attended most recently and the one that plays a significant role in my heart.

MUN used to be one of my fears that I loved. Why? Because I have a stutter, and MUN is heavily based on public speaking, diplomatic communication, and debate, which used to be one of my worst nightmares in the first conferences I went to.

I still remember so vividly at my second conference, because I was still new to the THIMUN procedure and was surrounded by extremely competitive delegates, I performed poorly and stumbled over most of my words in almost every single speech I have made. A delegate at the conference even personally attacked me, which did not even result in her getting a strike. However, that conference taught me a valuable lesson, which is to always speak up for yourself and never give up on trying to get your voice heard.

The next few conferences were much better; I at least got the technique of how to craft good and impactful speeches, and how to be outstanding in a conference. I was in seventh grade when the first BCISMUN was hosted, and I did what previous conferences taught me: Be active, speak a lot, and try to lead the debate with what I can do. However, the quality of my speeches and the professionalism of the amendments I made were not as good yet, which made me only get an honorable mention and not Outstanding or Best Delegate. I also learned the lesson of not rushing the process as being a chair requires an abundance of experience in being a delegate, and it always takes time to accumulate experience. However, I never forgot my ultimate goal for MUN, which was to chair at conferences and to lead the committee, and I have always applied to be chair at conferences, but not all of my applications were passed, until the last conference I participated in 2024, which was the World Youth MUN hosted by BWYA, which was the first time I chaired for a committee. It was a great experience as my confidence of being a chair in a conference outweighs my confidence in being a delegate in a conference.

Due to my chairing addiction, I thought that it was perhaps time for me to chair again in 2025. However, because I had just moved to a new school in a new city, I did not know what conferences were for me, and that gave me the first impression of Guangdong being a MUN desert (but after some research I realized that the annual Yale MUN China and Harvard MUN China are both in Guangdong, so perhaps it is not a desert). But I still feel so attached to my Beijinger identity, as you can probably tell from my love of food in Beijing, so why not take this opportunity of going to a conference as a chance to go back to Beijing? I then applied for a position to chair this year’s BCISMUN, which I thankfully got. After a long persuasion process, my parents finally agreed to let me go, and the day of the conference soon arrived. Before I knew it, the two-day conference was over, but now, looking back, even though I had trouble catching up with school work the week after, I still enjoyed the entire process, and I simply loved being back in Beijing after missing the city for so long. Even though I still had so many places that I wanted to go to in the city, the fun of the conference, meeting the friends I made back in Beijing, and gaining more experience in the world of MUN made the trip back more than worthwhile.

Images: Margaret Yang

In the social impact world, a common question is “What’s bugging you?” Entrepreneurs often start with a problem that bothers them, whether it’s a social issue or a market gap. For Daystar Academy tenth-grader Bayan Changizi, the answer was quite literal: bees. A longtime fascination with these vital pollinators led this student innovator to learn beekeeping for a school project – but he didn’t stop there. Bayan went on to build his own apiary, integrating beekeeping into his Beijing-based FROOT initiative, which grows organic produce and promotes sustainable farming. So what drives this young changemaker, and what’s it really like to keep a hive buzzing? We sat down with him to find out.

Bayan, your family has deep roots in Beijing. What’s your backstory?

My parents moved here more than 25 years ago from Canada. I was born in 2009 in Beijing. My mother is a math teacher at Daystar, and my father is a doctor at Beijing United Family Hospital. My older siblings are both studying in the medical field, one in Australia and one in the US.

So you’re a born-and-bred Beijinger! Are you fully fluent in Chinese? Is China “home” now?

Yes, I speak Chinese at the same level as English. In writing, my English is a bit better! I’ve attended the bilingual Daystar Academy since preschool. In primary, we studied a mix of the Chinese national curriculum and IB. My family spent every summer in Vancouver, and we have Persian ethnicity, so yeah, Canada and China are equally home, although mostly I identify as a global citizen.    

You’re in the IB MYP (International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program), which is known for its interdisciplinary approach. What is the goal of student projects during MYP?

In the last year of MYP, as we prepare to enter the DP (International Baccalaureate Diploma Program, grades 11-12), we complete a Personal Project on social innovation. We identify a social or environmental issue and come up with a solution to take action. We start defining our project in Grade 9 and continue throughout Grade 10. We do independent research, have an assigned supervisor who mentors us, and submit our final project to IB by February.

You chose a rather unique topic for your project – beekeeping! Why?

During the pandemic, there was severe isolation. My family wanted to reconnect with nature, and together with a Chinese family, we bought a farm in a village east of Beijing. I began helping out there on weekends, and eventually, I set up a venture called FROOT together with three friends. FROOT sells organic produce that’s pesticide-free and humanely farmed and free-range eggs from our own incubated chickens. We also host monthly events on sustainable farming practices, like composting, for families.

I’d love to buy humane produce from FROOT! So, where did bees enter the picture?

While working on the farm, I became more aware of the role of pollinators in sustainable farming. I’ve always been fascinated by bees – how they work together, how important bees are to human life as they pollinate up to 80 percent of all foods, and how their numbers are declining. Every summer in Vancouver, we’d see beekeepers on the road and stop to visit their apiaries. So, the MYP Personal Project was the perfect opportunity to take this interest to the next level. I reached out to a neighboring farmer, Mr Chen – we always bought his honey – and asked to do an apprenticeship. He taught me everything he knows! His experience helped me understand how to care for a hive and ensure its survival through the seasons. After a couple of months of learning, I moved the hive to our own farm and started beekeeping independently.

 What kinds of bees do you keep?

These are Italian honeybees. Native honeybees in Northern China are endangered; they are kept in protected areas where invasive European honeybees cannot threaten them.

What does beekeeping entail exactly? When do you harvest?

I go every weekend to tend the hive. It’s a yearlong process. Winter is the toughest period for bees, with low temperatures and no source of nectar or pollen. During winter, I fed my bees sugar as supplementary food and insulated the hive to help them conserve energy. Now that it’s spring, I’m planting flowers near the hive to increase food diversity for their foraging. Throughout the year, beekeepers will inspect their hives for things such as mites, disease, population size, and queen health. The honey harvest comes in autumn.

How does it feel to handle the hive?

Intense! You need to keep all movements smooth so as not to agitate the hive.

Did you get a chance to exhibit your project results?

We had an exhibition at school, and I presented it at the Future of Education Now (FOEN) conference at Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) in March, at a workshop session called Planting the Seeds for a Sustainable Future.

What aspects of your upbringing do you feel particularly shaped your drive?

My family environment is a big part of who I am. My parents always encouraged hands-on work, whether it was fixing broken appliances or getting your hands dirty in the garden. I remember my brother reminding me to “be the best Bayan I can be.”

What three pieces of advice would you offer for other young people?

1: In a world increasingly immersed in technology, remember to maintain a connection with nature and the earth.
2: Once you find a passion, explore it and hang on to it.
3: Always find a way to give back what you have been given.

Looking ahead, do you see sustainable farming playing a role in your future studies or career?

Climate change is a problem that our generation will have to tackle. Sustainability isn’t just a choice – it’s a necessity. What I’ve learned from farming will shape how I see the world and the role I want to play in it.

Inspired? We know we are! If you’re a teen with an incredible achievement, let us know! Get in touch with Mina Yan via email at minayan@beijing-kids.com or WeChat (ID: Wilhelmina87).

Images: Bayan Changizi

Get active and make a difference this Sunday at the annual Run & Brunch from 9am – 1pm at Western Academy of Beijing (WAB). Organized by WAB’s student-led club KM for LOVE, all profits will go to Dew Drops where this year’s money will go help over 20 kids in need of cleft lip surgery and dental care.

Whether you’re a seasoned runner or just looking for a fun weekend activity, this event combines fitness with a good cause. Plus, enjoy a delicious brunch after your run with fresh fruit, snacks, and free-flow pancakes. We can’t think of a better way to spend time with your friends and family this weekend. For non-runners, no worries – simply come and enjoy the brunch and show your support for Dew Drops children!

Tickets range from RMB 160 – 260. Scan the QR code to sign up and be part of this heartwarming event. Let’s run for love and bring hope to these children! We hope to see many of you there! If you are not able to attend, you can still contribute by making a Virtual Donation!

Find it:
10 Laiguangying Donglu, Chaoyang District
朝阳区来广营东路10号

Images: Courtesy of KM for LOVE

From an idea that popped into my mind back in Grade 5 to launching our first product – the launch of Eco Apparel has been a remarkable journey for me. I have learned so much from this experience, and I feel that it is time for me to share my journey of revolutionizing the fashion industry.

The idea first came to me in Grade 5, when I stumbled upon a YouTube video on how vegan leather is made. I was completely fascinated – the company would receive otherwise wasted mangos from a mango export company in the Netherlands and would use that as the raw material to create a sustainable textile. I thought that this could be the invention that could forever change the fashion industry, but I was wrong. The manufacturing process was expensive, and people were skeptical of calling it “vegan leather” when there wasn’t any cow skin involved in the manufacturing process. Despite all the pessimistic views on this invention, the seed of the idea for Eco Apparel started to grow in my head, as I started to think about bringing this invention to more people and the population that may not be exposed to these types of technologies.

The idea came back to me when I saw the video again in Grade 7 – the exact same video I saw in Grade 5. I started to think deeper about what I could do to bring this to life. At first, I wanted to invent another type of sustainable textile, and I even did research on what types of fiber and raw materials I could use to create sustainable textiles. However, after diving deep into the possibilities, I realized that this may not be the path for me to take as basically all the possibilities are used and they are products that you can buy from companies that produce them that have unfortunately patented them, so that means I could not produce them and make that into a business. However, after sharing my ideas and findings with a teacher, who I’d like to say is a mentor to this project, we decided to develop this project into a fashion business where I take the sustainable materials manufactured by those companies that make them and process them into clothing and sell the clothing. This idea was not particularly appealing to me back then as I thought that the world of fashion is way too crowded and the space for me to grow would be minimal. However, after considering all the pros and cons of spending the next four or five years of my life engaging in a research project that requires so much more money and time compared to starting a fashion business that would generally take less time and bring more revenue for me to use for charitable purposes, I decided to execute the idea. And the first step was to find MONEY.

The first step my team and I decided to take on the project to seek funding was to apply for the Jim Koerschen Award from the Association of China and Mongolia International Schools (ACAMIS). I was hesitant to apply for the award as I did not know if I wanted to bring the project to life yet. However, seven days before the award application deadline, our mentor notified us about the upcoming deadline, and we immediately started crafting our award application. We submitted it one day before the deadline.

Then, I saw advertisements for the Avenir business competition, and I decided to sign up. When I got into a group with one of the team members from the award application, we used Eco Apparel as our idea for the competition. We attended the competition and won the Junior division. The primary reason why I attended the competition was the fact that there was the potential for me to win the prize money, and thankfully, we received the prize money as intended.

We got the notification for the result of the Jim Koerschen award, and even though we did not win the award, the executive director of ACAMIS back then, Mr. Tom Ulmet, emailed us saying that even though we did not receive the Jim Koershen award, the committee felt that our project was very worthy of the Service Learning Grant. Thus, they presented us with the funding of the Service Learning Grant.

Right after we received those two funds, I wanted to pitch our idea to a VC and see what they thought about it. However, even though we mentioned every single unique selling point and specialty of the brand, the VC was not particularly fond of the idea and even suggested to us that we could start getting paid for working on this project even though it would be illegal. After we pitched to the investor and received his rejection, four of the six members of the team left, and the only two people that were left were Selena and I (Eco Apparel’s current team), and that made me doubt if this project was really worth doing if everyone did not want to do it with me. This is a point of the project that I would consider a lowlight, and even though I did know that there would be parts of this startup that would not be successful and would not be going as planned, I was not ready to receive such a result for an idea that won two awards. However, the lesson that I learned here allowed me to push through the next stages of the project and made me more confident in the fact that although there will be parts of the project that people do not like, I am the one who carries it out and makes it a success; it will be a rewarding journey regardless.

With those two funds in hand, my team and I got started on executing the project. We began to discuss the design and negotiated with the manufacturer if we could purchase an order that is below their minimum order quantity, and thankfully, they said yes. We then were able to have our design manufactured and made into the product we have today!

Below is a picture of the product we launched in December of 2024 on our 小红书 account (ecoapparel), and we hope you can support us on our journey!

WeChat Official Account: Eco Apparel

Images: Avenir Photographers, Margaret Yang, Pexels