Eliana Carson

age:12

When Eliana Carson and her friend Rachel Maples were looking for a business to start, they wanted to do something original.

“Originally, we were going to do a lemonade stand, but we thought that wasn’t original at all,” Eliana said. “So we thought we should think of something more interesting, and we thought about her sea glass. This was at 1 a.m. at this point, and we were Googling up sea glass stuff, and we just found that that was pretty cool.”

After a few hours’ sleep, they planned it out and got their parents to provide them with a $20 budget to buy supplies.

After that, they went out to collect sea glass and begin making art and handcrafted jewelry.

The Nansemond-Suffolk Academy seventh-graders took their business, Seaglass Co., to last February’s Young Entrepreneur Business Expo at the Hilton Garden Inn Suffolk Riverfront and won $200 for having the Most Original Business idea.

At the show, Eliana, 12 , learned more about how to run her business, how businesses work, money-management and social skills — all things she hopes to apply to the upscale restaurant she hopes to run one day. “I’ve always wanted to be a business owner,” Eliana said. “I was thinking about opening up a restaurant or something, and the skills we learned from this business could really help me when I have a restaurant.”

Her own advice for young people like herself who have the ambition to strike out on their own was blunt: Do it.

“You’re going to be in the business industry making a bunch of money,” she said.

—Jimmy LaRoue

In a word or phrase, how would you describe yourself? Socially awkward

What is your favorite TV show? “Riverdale”