The Dare Dreamer Movement by Julene Fleurmond

Here are some recent posts from my youth website www.DreamerENT.com:

Interview: Alyson Stoner and Her Mom On Healthy Habits for Back to School

Today’s tweens and teens lead busy lives, especially with school starting back up again. Sometimes in the bustle between classes, homework and after school activities they may not take the time to practice healthy habits…

Read more of the Interview: Alyson Stoner and Her Mom On Healthy Habits for Back to School

Josh Shipp Launches The Teen’s Guide to World Domination

Youth motivational expert Josh Shipp has launched a new book for teens, The Teen’s Guide to World Domination: Advice on Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Awesomeness. The guide is full of humor and down-to-earth wisdom that helps teens improve their lives in every area – from relationships to dealing with hard times…

Read more of Josh Shipp Launches The Teen’s Guide to World Domination

Serving Up Style: Interview with Young Entrepreneur Raymond Lei Founder of ooShirts

Entrepreneurship is all about fitting your skills and creativity to serve the needs of those around you. 19-year-old Raymond Lei is doing just that as he helps people everywhere customize their style through his T-shirt company ooShirts.com.

The idea for ooShirts was sparked in 2006 when a group of Raymond’s classmates needed custom t-shirts for their school club, “Monta Vista Tennis Club.” Then a sophomore in high school, Raymond took up the task of finding a company to print their shirts. He looked through both local and online companies, only to discover time after time that the Tennis Club couldn’t afford to have its design printed.

Disappointed at the poor selection of affordable services, Raymond vowed to one day start a t-shirt company that saved its customers money. He gathered up $2000, began planning and in March of 2007 the first ooShirts website was launched. The site allows anyone to upload their own design, pick a shirt style and color and have their t-shirt printed and shipped. Ever since, Raymond has been serving up personalized style a tee at a time. Check out what he had to share with Dreamer ENT about being a young entrepreneur…

Read more of Serving Up Style: Interview with Young Entrepreneur Raymond Lei Founder of ooShirts

Check out the cute, creative critters on the custom-made dresses above by young entrepreneur and fashion designer Zoë.


Stay tuned for an upcoming interview on DreamerENT.com with Zoë (pictured to the right), a 17-year-old high school student and fashion designer. She started creating hand-made dresses, shirts and accessories for friends a few years ago and soon began to get so many orders that she started her own business. Her success and creativity allowed her to win several entrepreneurship awards, and she even recently got to visit the the White House! In the interview she’ll tell us how she got started and will give tips for other aspiring fashionistas and future CEOs.

For my youth website Dreamer ENT I got to interview an inspiring young entrepreneur, Jasmine Lawrence, who started her own natural hair care company when she was 11. Check out the full interview by clicking below – I’m sure you’ll be inspired. She’s also a fellow NFTE alum (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, the program which helped me start a business as a teen). Be inspired by her journey from an innovative 11-year-old to the Oprah Winfrey Show and beyond…

Jasmine Lawrence is a young successful entrepreneur who has definitely been soaring and growing toward her dreams. It all sprouted when she was 11-years-old, after she mixed together natural ingredients to create her own hair oils for her broken, damaged tresses. By age 13 her hair was flourishing, and she was selling her hair products to friends. At 15 she shared her story with Oprah and other major news outlets, and began discussing distribution deals with Wal-Mart – all while striving to get her homework in on time.

Now at 17-years-old, Jasmine’s natural beauty care company Eden BodyWorks has bloomed immensely, and she hopes to bring it to even greater heights. She recently graduated from high school, and is studying computer engineering at Georgia Tech. She’s also featured in the film Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon (that we wrote about in a previous post) featuring young entrepreneurs. Watch Jasmine below in a clip from the film:

Jasmine spoke to Dreamer ENT about her amazing experiences, what motivates her to keep going, and how other young people can bring their dreams to fruition:

(This was originally posted on my youth site www.DreamerENT.com). As a NFTE alumnus I’m really excited to see this film, and encourage everyone to see it as well. To find out more about how you or someone you know can take part in NFTE visit www.nfte.com.)

They’re bright, energetic, and blazing a trail of accomplishment by shooting toward their dreams… Check out the film Ten9Eight featuring a group of young passionate entrepreneurs…

“In America, a kid drops out of high school every 9 seconds… Imagine if they didn’t.” The upcoming documentary Ten9Eight explores this question, by telling the stories of a group of diverse young entrepreneurs from urban neighborhoods around the country who are overlooking their circumstances and starting their own businesses. The film, by award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio, follows the teens as they compete in an annual business plan competition run by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). The teens are selected from over 24,000 students from across the country, and compete in the final round in New York City for the chance to win $10,000 to launch his or her business.

Anné Montague, age 17, Founder of Inamoratos Dance (pictured above): Anné does it all. She dances, choreographs, and takes full charge of her dance company, which she started at the age of 10. Anné was raised primarily by her father, Purcell Montague, a truck driver, as her mother suffered from drug addiction. Anné, a focused girl with a big attitude, requires her dancers to go to class and keep their grades up. Anné’s business is a non-profit, aimed at getting inner city kids off the street. Her motto? “No shirt, no shoes, no need. We dance.” Anné will attend Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University next year, majoring in business.

Rodney Walker, age 19, Founder of Forever Life Music and Video Productions: Rodney was put into the foster care system at the age of 5 and ended up homeless on the streets of Chicago. Almost becoming a statistic like many of his brothers, Rodney was able to chart a new future – and is now studying business as a freshman at Morehouse College.

Amanda Loyola, age 16, Founder of Eco-Dog Biscuits: Amanda’s father escaped from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, finding a job at Burger King in Brooklyn, New York. He inspired his daughter, Amanda, to think that anything might be possible in America. Amanda started her business, a vegetarian dog treat company, after her dog, Princess, died from cancer.

Anné, Rodney, Amanda are but three of several remarkably resilient kids featured in this film, all of whom are facing the most challenging of circumstances in the inner city – making their achievements all the more remarkable.

Descriptions from from the website Ten9Eight.com

Click here to read more of the teens’ stories and for more photos, and visit www.ten9eight.com to see if the film will be playing at a theater near you.

Watch the trailer for the inspiring film below:

I had the opportunity to be featured in the upcoming entrepreneurship education textbook from the Network Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, or NFTE. This was such a blessing to me because NFTE was the organization that helped me start a business as a teen.

The feature is about cultivating relationships to help your business succeed. The textbook entitled Entrepreneurship: Owning Your Future is used in the NFTE curriculum to teach high school students the art of starting and running a business. NFTE is the program that enabled Julene to start her own marketing business when she herself was in high school.

Read a portion of the feature below:

Relationship Building: The Art of Success
When Julene Fleurmond was in the tenth grade, she entered a Web design contest at her South Miami high school. “I began teaching myself how to use different Web-design programs,” she said. “I didn’t think I would win, and I won first place.”

Relationships Lead to Business
Along with being awarded a scholarship, Julene also impressed one of the judges, who asked her to work with his organization, the National Urban League, on other projects. Julene began doing community service projects. She researched how to operate a creative graphic design business, took on internships at other firms, networked with professors and mentors, and made sure her work was on a professional level.

After two years of freelancing, Julene started Envibrance Studios, a media and promotional company that creates Websites, multimedia, creative content, and publications. Envibrance’s motto is “Envision the possibilities; we’ll bring them to life.” Julene was confident about providing her services, but she didn’t feel confident about pricing them…

Relationships That Count
In the beginning, Julene tried to do everything herself. Eventually she found that “Asking for help is not some thing you should be afraid of. Sometimes I would ask other designers I knew to do part of a project. Or we would collaborate if I didn’t know how to do something. They would do one part of it and I would do the other.”

Julene also learned how to take on projects that she’s passionate about. “My genre now is mostly youth-oriented organizations or organizations that cater to youths. Having a genre or an audience that I’m very passionate about really helps me to be more passionate about my work.”

Her advice to other entrepreneurs is to make sure they’re passionate about whatever they do, even if others say it won’t be profitable.

“I think that if you pursue what you’re truly passionate about and what you were made to do, financial benefits and everything else will follow naturally.”

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