By AMELIA HEAGERTY
Staff Writer
Three Vashon middle-schoolers made their debut on the small screen this month — on a television show that scouts the nation for entrepreneurial youth.
Zoe Adberg, Cara Bordner and Lili Stenn have their own businesses and sell their wares at Saturday Vashon Farmers Market. A television segment starring the trio broadcast on more than 280 channels nationwide on Feb. 6, on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) show Bizkids.
The three Harbor School students split a tent at the farmers market.
Adberg, founder of Fleece on Earth, sews and sells fleece capes, hats and scarves as well as aprons. Bordner, creator of Blu Hoops Hula Hoops, fashions hula hoops out of PVC piping. And Stenn designs jewelry under her own Flower Power Beads’ label.
“The great thing is what they’re doing any kid can do, and the farmers market is an easy, kid-friendly place for them to begin selling their wares,” said Jeannine Glista, Bizkids’ executive producer. “Usually farmers markets are open to kids selling. I think it’s an inspiring story in that regard. All the things these girls are doing are not huge expensive items, so that makes it approachable too.”
A crew of five came to Vashon in June to film the three setting up their booth at the farmers market, selling products and, later in the afternoon, showing how they made the items.
“If you are good at something and you want to continue doing it, you should really think about starting your own business and selling stuff,” Stenn said. “Saturday market is always open, and you just pay a little bit to open a booth.”
Stenn, a sixth-grade Harbor School student, began selling jewelry last year. She is currently saving up for a trip, and she always donates a portion of her proceeds to Vashon Island Pet Protectors.
Bordner saved up several hundred dollars from the sales of hula hoops to go on a trip to Guadalajara, Mexico, last year with other Harbor School students, where she volunteered at a children’s shelter, Casa Hogar Nacidos para Triunfar, a project the school sponsors each year.
Bordner learned how to make hula hoops at a crafts fair three years ago and decided to sell them to others because they’re unique, she said.
Although she was followed by a film crew, it didn’t sink in that she’d be onscreen eight months later.
“It was kind of weird to see me on TV,” Bordner said. “It didn’t really click that people would see me on TV.”
Bizkids is a locally produced PBS television series. Based in Seattle and created by the team that produces “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” Bizkids travels nationwide finding “young folks in business,” Glista said.
She said a goal of the show is to improve the “financial literacy of youth.”
