JA 18 Under 18
AVA BLAIR
Ava has used her natural creative gifts for entrepreneurial endeavors since she was very young. Her first business was making custom bookmarks using stickers, markers, index cards and a laminating machine. She filled 100 orders and was just four years old. In addition to sewing (she sewed masks for her neighbors during the pandemic) and crocheting, Ava has taught herself how to make perfume.
Her company, Ava B. Marks, handcrafts scented shea butter products, each named for cities Ava has traveled to that are of significance to Black history. Always willing to share her gifts, Ava teaches friends and families how to make perfumes and products. When she isn’t working on her crafty businesses, Ava is a member of her school’s step team and her church drama team.
“Ava is self-taught, she will teach herself how to do something and practice over and over again until she gets it right. She is determined and, as a creative, she doesn’t limit herself.”—Clarine Henderson, mother