Seventeen year old Autumn Newberry’s journey to entrepreneurship is a tale filled with “black girl magic” and “women’s empowerment.”  

“I was motivated to start my business because of a personal situation I saw my mom go through,” Newberry says. She says, she witnessed her mother question her worth. “This prompted me to do something that would empower women of all ages,” She says. “Women go through many situations in life such as mental and physical abuse, adultery and molestation. I noticed that one of the first things we ask ourselves is what did I do? Or I’m I good enough? I want to inspire women to have confidence and to be independent,” She says. “I want my cosmetics to make women feel beautiful on the outside and feel powerful on the inside. I believe that if you look good, you feel good.”

While being an entrepreneur, Newberry also has to make sure her homework gets done. “I try to handle everything I need to do for my business when I first get home from school until around 7 pm,”She says. “After then, I focus on studying and home work until around 10 pm,”She says. Newberry says she tries to take care of most of her shipping and preparing orders on Saturdays. “I try to stay active on my business social media accounts but I can be challenging when I have a big test or papers to write,” She says.

Newberry let me know she plans to attend college in the fall with a major in finance or marketing. “I’m hoping to gain more knowledge about business practices that I can use to continue to grow Autumn Doll Cosmetics.” 

Not only does she plan to grow her education but she plans to grow her business. “I have a spring lip gloss line, Breezy, coming out at the end of March,” She says. “I also have begun and researching lip scrubs and moisturizers and eventually I plan to supply lip pencils and eye shadow,” She says. Newberry says her ultimate goal is to own a manufacturing company. 

“I want little black girls to feel good about themselves and to know the sky is the limit,” Newberry says. Her advice for young black girls interested in becoming entrepreneurs, is to find their passion. “Find out what you like to do that does not feel like work,” She says. She says a vision board and research helped her. “I also used the money I made from interning to invest in my business which caused my parents to know that I was serious,” She says. “Thus, they pitched in a little to get me started. My dad paid for me to become a LLC and my mom helped me to design my logo and take pictures for the website,” She says.

Newberry says she wants women in general to accomplish their goals. She says “A little bit of glitz goes a long way!”