MAKE IT CUTE

Are the walls inside of your locker boring you beyond belief? Girls your age are inventing things to help ya out! Check out Magnetic Wallpaper, only $8 a sheet from high school senior Sarah Buckel. This Pennsylvania native came up with the idea in eighth grade after she watched her frustrated friends trying to peel other types of paper off their lockers.

She may be a young entrepreneur, but she’s made serious bank. In the first year of selling Magnetic Wallpaper, she made over $1.3 million in sales. Whoa! There are over 30 designs to choose from, sold at Walmart, Staples and Magnacard.com. Although it took two years to patent Magnetic Wallpaper (a.k.a. claim the idea as her own) and one year to get it on the store shelves, the product is doing better than ever! It's super-easy to get on and off your locker AND the colors and patterns are mega fun.

Her advice for young inventors? “If you think that you can do something, then do it!” Sarah said. “I think it’s awesome to help other people: come up with an idea that isn’t selfish that will benefit everyone else. Market your audience and know how to target them.”

But what if you can’t even SEE the great looking paper in your locker because it’s so dark? Eighth grader Blair Brezeale has you covered. She’s invented Locker Lites —magnets that you can push to light up your whole locker. They come in circle, star and heart shapes that you can stick to any magnetic surface in your space.

When she first got to middle school, she was disappointed that lockers were so plain and wanted a “Disney Channel” locker. “When you’re watching the Disney channel, [the characters] will be at school and open up their lockers and they’ll have tons of decorations lit up and it looks so pretty… it’s just the dream locker,” Blair said. How’d she score her own “Disney Channel” locker? By inventing magnetic lights in pretty colors, of course. So perf for illuminating the style of your locker.

Blair’s advice for budding entrepreneurs? “Keep dreaming about making your product happen because if you work hard it’ll come true,” Blair said.

 

1/22/2010 7:00:00 AM