MEMPHIS, Tenn. —
Bryson and Peighton Cantrell were in 2nd grade when they wanted to get their friends to read more.
Now at 15 years old, the twin entrepreneurs run an educational non-profit.
The Cantrell twins were avid readers, bored during the summer and wanted to share that love with others.
It started out with eight of their close friends and grew until there were so many book clubs, they couldn’t attend them all.
That’s how the Bookit4life book club began.
Now the organization works with metro area grades K-6 through community service projects and events.
“We would discuss about how in the libraries kids would just look at the pictures and if they did not like [it], they were not going to read [it], and my mom introduced the idea of a book club" Peighton Cantrell said.
In 2019, they attended a business fair, but to help reach more underserved children, they started sponsoring their own fairs, the Memphis Children's Business Fair.
But it wasn't until 2020 that they received their official 501(c)3 non-profit status.
HOW IT STARTED
The Cantrells began working with the Rotary Club of Memphis Central and Memphis Libraries to reach even more children and create a book club in every library in the city, but they only got to five of them before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
During the lockdown, hosting in-person book clubs stopped for the twins. Instead, the business partners switched their focus to growing their business fairs, which ultimately led to the creation of The Memphis Children’s Business Fairs.
“We participated in our first business fair in 2019, and we realized we really, really enjoyed the business fair, but it was not available to different kids in different communities,” Peighton Cantrell said. “The one thing we really one is for everyone to be able to do it, so we decided to create our own.”
The business fairs are now used to reach more diverse areas and provide more connections with community partners and businesses.
It gives children, aged 6 to 16, the opportunity to launch their very own startup business. They develop a brand, create a product or service, build a marketing strategy and then open it for customers for one day.
Teaching financial literacy and being an outlet for education from a young age, the Cantrells hope to set up children for the future.
The pop-up event is hosted by BookIt4Life Children's Social Club, Acton Family, and other supporting sponsors and volunteers.
But for the young teens, they said they didn’t do any of it alone.
Giving credit to their volunteers, friends and family members who they say are the backbone of their operation and keep them from failing.
“Our parents are our biggest supporters they have done so much for us and sacrificed a lot for us,” Peighton Cantrell said. “They didn’t ask questions while starting this off.”
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
The twins want to continue to emphasize the importance of helping other children achieve their goals and ambitions.
“For me, I want to expand on our abilities to do service projects and expand our reach with service projects,” Bryson said.
“For me, I want a big literacy push because that is where we are lacking to most right now and I want to be able to see not only tutoring and different things with their peers, but I want to help people expand their libraries,” Peighton Cantrell said.
They also want to continue the push to teach financial literacy.
From an early age they knew not all children have the same opportunities in life, so they plan to keep trying to fill that void by expanding the opportunities for learning and experiences.