Browsing through my LinkedIn page, I skimmed over the endless posts from recruiters and hot-shot CEOs, trying to remind myself that I was on LinkedIn for a reason. Then it happened. There, nestled between two mundane posts was something rather marvellous:
Intrigued, I hopped over to their website, http://www.wellity.co.uk/. Here I was introduced to the smiling faces of Molly, Phoebe and Joe and their incredible journey being, not only young entrepreneurs, but also inspirational in their movement to tackle obesity in kids. I knew I had to speak to Molly & Phoebe, they encapsulate everything Women Who Do want to encourage; chasing dreams, realising potential and contributing something positive to our society. Here’s what they had to say:
Women Who Do: Hello Girls! Firstly, tell us a bit more about yourselves.
Molly: Hello Emma! I am Molly and I am 12 - I'm the eldest of the three of us and I am studying quite hard at the moment - which isn't a problem because weirdly I actually like school! I play a lot of sport at school including netball but outside of school time I love to swim. Summer is my favourite time because I can swim for hours.
Phoebe: Hi, I'm Phoebes - I'm 10 as I write this but I will be 11 in October...so basically, I am 11! My hobbies include swimming and netball. I love swimming because I can switch off and not think of anything else apart from staying afloat!
WWD: So, I have LOVED following your story, can you just give my readers a quick summary of what you're doing at Wellity?
Molly: Well we started a sports, health and fitness brand for kids. We came up with name Wellity because we thought it sounded quite cool and it hadn't been used before. It is a mix of "Well" - Wellness and "Ity" - Vitality. In the business is me, Phoebe and our step brother Joe - he's 11. Dad also does the adult stuff that we can't do because of our age and he works on it while we are at school.
Phoebe: We kept hearing about childhood obesity being talked about in the news but no one seemed to be doing anything about it. They kept saying what kids shouldn't eat but no one was actually telling the kids - so we decided to try and help.
WWD: Wow – that’s impressive. Where did you come up with this idea?
Phoebe: We came up with the idea at home. We were all competing about how many steps we could do on our Fitbits and then we wondered if we could find a way that kids could compare their results which would in turn encourage everyone to get off the sofa and exercise.
WWD: I think we need to get Fitbits in our household! What are your roles in the business?
Molly: I do the organising - and they need organising!
Phoebe: I like being creative so the logos and the clothes .... and Joe, our step brother is the other member of the #WellityKids and he does the networking and comes up with some cool and wacky ideas.
WWD: Organising people can be really hard, it’s a great skill to have and Phoebe, you’re a creative, like me! How did you get it all started?
Molly: We realised that it would be too expensive to make a new app to join all the kids so we wanted to just make "healthy" go viral as we think that kids listen to kids more than kids listen to adults. To try and make it fun we had to get everyone’s attention and that was when we decided to do the clothes and the interviews ... to get the kids' attention and make them know that it is run by children.
WWD: Yeah – kids don’t really listen to adults (to be fair not many adults listen to other adults either!) What do you love most about what you’re doing?
Molly: Just love it all really. We have met some amazing people and interviewed some famous stars that we see on tv.
WWD: What have you found difficult?
Phoebe: Presenting to hundreds of adults was so nerve racking but it was probably the biggest buzz!
WWD: Eeek, sounds scary! So before we go, we’ve heard about your journey so far, but what do you want to happen next?
Molly: Just really want to keep it going and see where we go. Would be great to make Wellity famous and we want to work with other health companies.
Phoebe: We want to get kids looking after their own health and fitness and we want to start getting more health products just for kids and grow our brand so that everyone knows about it!
If you can help Wellity or want to get in touch then you can email them on info@wellity.co.uk. Help to make Wellity famous! You can also follow them:
Twitter: @WellityKids
Facebook: @WellityKids
Instagram: @WellityKids
