July 01st, 2010 | Author: Pencil Bugs Creator

BIZ KID: Samantha Fernandez

BUSINESS: Pick-A-Pick/Travelin’ Tunes

AGE: 16

WEBSITE: www.wix.com/pickapick/pickapick

Who would have thought that you could take guitar picks and turn them into jewelry? That’s exactly what 16-year-old Samantha Fernandez did.  In December 2009, Samantha started the business Pick-A-Pick.

She has always had a passion for music. One day she said she was walking through a guitar store and saw the picks. Then it just hit her. Samantha makes the jewelry herself by punching holes in the picks and stringing them. Some of the picks have really amazing graphics.

In addition to her handmade jewelry, Samantha also started a program called Travelin’ Tunes. With the help of other young musicians, Samantha performs for kids in Miami Children’s Hospital and also teaches them about music. Samantha believes that music is a great healing tool and goes twice a week to play for the kids. Because of her age, she currently performs in the hospital’s outpatient area but since she recently turned 16, she can now train to go into the patient rooms.

Samantha loves music and medicine which is an interesting combination.  She has wanted to be a pediatric neurosurgeon ever since she was three years old which blows my mind.  Samantha admits that it’s kind of bizarre that she loves hospitals but I think it’s cool and makes sense because of her goal to become a doctor.  She is making a difference in kids’ lives which makes her feel good.

For those who want to purchase from Pick-A-Pick or donate to her Travelin’ Tunes program, log onto her website and send an email. At the present time, she is not set up for PayPal but will accept checks.

Other than her business and charity work, she attends a regular high school and plays guitar and piano in her spare time.

If you are in the Miami area and want to volunteer with Samantha, she welcomes support.  There is no musical talent needed for the volunteers; just the ability to entertain the kids.

For more information on BIZKID 2 BIZKID or if you know of a young entrepreneur that you would like to see featured please visit Pencil Bugs.

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June 27th, 2010 | Author: Pencil Bugs Creator

Parents do many things but their most important job is to become obsolete.  This is not a bad thing.

Their goal is to teach their kids to be self sufficient and not rely them for every little thing.  This doesn’t mean that kids don’t need their parents anymore or won’t want their help for lots of things as they get older. My mom still calls her mom all the time with questions or just to talk.  Parents should always be a part of their kid’s life, but the kids should be able to survive if/when the parents are no longer around.

People change constantly, especially kids.  Ironically though,  at my 8th grade graduation, the speaker said that “From this point forward, your [the parents] job is done.” Even as a kid, I couldn’t believe what he said because I know how much my parents still do with and for me. Then he added that at this age, kids are pretty much the way they will be for the rest of their life. Not only is that ridiculous, but it is not true. I have heard lots of adults say they changed even after they grew up.

As kids grow up, we won’t “need” our parents in the same way as we did when we were little but that doesn’t mean that parents won’t continue to help or teach their kids.

My grandma, who is 77, is still learning new things each day. Life is about changing and improving. If we didn’t change after 14 years old, well who knows how we would be?

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Category: Kid's POV  | Leave a Comment
June 18th, 2010 | Author: Pencil Bugs Creator

I’ve met lots of biz kids of all ages since I started my business. But these four are just a few of the older ones I was lucky to meet because we were all featured in Mark Victor Hansen’s book, “The Richest Kids in America.” Not every person featured in the book was rich by any means, me included, but each person had their special talents and reasons for starting their business.

Chelsea Eubank – @faithfulfish Founder of Faithful Fish, a clothing line with cool designs with a religious theme. Chelsea has quite a story to tell. Make sure to check out her website and if you’re not already following her on Twitter, do it now.

Olivia Bennett – @oliviabennett A talented artist who started painting at five years old as a form of therapy after having cancer. Her artwork is amazing.

Martina Butler – @emogirltalk She runs her own web podcast and was the first teenager to get national sponsorship.

Allyson Ames – @wonderlandbakery Allyson could be a “look-a-like” for Alice in Wonderland but in reality, she started her own bakery business and does amazing custom cookies, cakes, cupcakes, etc. I’ve tried them and they are as good as they look.

Of course, if you’re not already following Mark on Twitter, make sure you do. @markvhansen

If you’re interested in buying a copy of the book, I have it on sale now through July 4 for just $8.99 with FREE shipping and autographed by me. Check my Pencil Bugs website to order.

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June 16th, 2010 | Author: Pencil Bugs Creator

Anyone who watches the competition reality shows pretty much knows that it won’t always be fair or even good. The producers purposely let untalented, crazy, or even disgusting people on the show just to get ratings. That’s no surprise! But if America’s Got Talent is supposed to be even a little legitimate, what happened last night?

A 60-something woman with sky-high red, bushy hair, painted-on black eyebrows, dark red lipstick that went way beyond her mouth “attempted” to sing and play the keyboard. She was horrible from the start and the audience immediately starting giving the X sign to cancel her. Piers was the first judge to X her but the other two just let her continue. Then when her time was up (they actually let her finish), Howie and Sharon voted her through to Las Vegas commenting that they thought she was interesting. Did they forget the show is not called “America’s Got Interesting People” but “America’s Got Talent?”

The show went from bad to worse when a 10-year-old girl, Nina Waga Mojares, with four back-up singers/dancers was amazing and DID have talent but yet all three judges voted NO on her saying she just wasn’t ready for Vegas. They agreed she was talented but had other specific, nit-picky comments about her performance. Watch her performance and I think you’ll agree that she was amazing!

What were they thinking?

If the show starts to go away from the main purpose of the show, which is talent, and borders on weird stuff  just for ratings, they will lose in the end.

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June 13th, 2010 | Author: Pencil Bugs Creator

People say some outrageous things on Twitter.  We’ve all seen the silly and ridiculous tweets where someone gives way too much information.  Some people think what they say doesn’t matter because it doesn’t seem real when it’s a virtual life.  Now imagine if you were in public and said some of the things that people say on Twitter.

Say you were in a park and someone walks up to the crowd and yells, “Everyone look at pictures of my cat” and holds up photographs.  That would seem weird, right?  People are ok with saying those things over the Internet though.  Let’s take another example. You are in a store and someone says outloud, “The baby cried all night…didn’t get any sleep.”  It’s a bit random, but if you think about it, when someone say whatever is on their mind on Twitter, people think nothing of it.  It seems like it is kind of expected on Twitter but frowned upon in real life.

Another thing, if we “LOL’ed” as much in real life as we do online, we would be a much happier society.  Think about it.  The Internet allows us to be anybody without ever having any human interaction.  We do and say what we do online because we can but that doesn’t make it right.

Point?  Does everyone in the world really need to know what people are doing every second?  I’m not the first, by far, to point this out either.  Before you tweet just think, would I say that outloud to someone in person?

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