11-year-old Edmonton entrepreneur sewing cloth masks at home

An 11-year-old entrepreneur from Edmonton has made the switch from making hand-made scrunchies, to sewing masks.

Kayla Mak of Edmonton is the brains behind KK Mak Kreations, which she first started last year to sell personalized scrunchies to cheerleaders like herself.

“She started selling to others on her team or in her club, and it just spiralled from there. She started her own scrunchie line, basically,” her mother, Catherine, said in an interview with Daily Hive.

Kyla sold her products at a number of trade shows, but in the past month or so, Catherine said they were all cancelled.

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“That’s where most of the sales came from, because it is something you have to touch and feel.”

“We had to pivot, and something we really needed at this point was masks. So I researched how to make masks, and it wasn’t to make a business out of it, that wasn’t how we started — it was just, let’s make some for ourselves and if there’s anybody in our neighbourhood or in our community that might need some, we’ll provide some to them.”

Catherine says people began sending referrals, and business really picked up for Kayla, who has sold hundreds despite only starting to sell them last week.

“I’m so proud of her. She’s 11, so I don’t know if she really understands what it means right now,” Catherine said.

“She’s just like okay, ‘I got to wake up, I got to do my homework, and then I got to sew.’ She has been working until midnight every day for the last four days, and I try to get her to sleep earlier but she’s like ‘no, no, no, I just got like one more, I just want to finish this.'”

So far, they report sending out hundreds of orders, and they’re planning to continue trying to meet demand by bringing in reinforcements.

“Right now I’m calling on reinforcements, and it’s also just calling on dad to help, and on grandma to help.”

Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw, provided more information on the use of non-medical masks for preventing the spread of coronavirus in a press conference on Monday.