Giving Back: Zandra's Commitment to Girls’ Education

When you talk of millionaire teens, you’re often referring to young rappers or kids born into wealthy families who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths. But that’s not the case with Zandra Cunningham. At just 14, she was already a CEO and a millionaire, having worked her way up and built a company from scratch. Her entrepreneurial journey and success are beyond fascinating, and she’s committed to helping other girls achieve the same and even better. As such, she has dedicated massive resources and time to building initiatives to help young girls gain valuable skills to conquer the world.

Zandra’s fascinating entrepreneurial journey started when she was nine years old, mixing ingredients in her mom’s kitchen to formulate lip balm after her Dad wouldn't buy it for her anymore. Since then, she has turned it into a full-line plant-based skincare brand —Zandra Beauty—with an annual revenue of over $4.2M.

As part of her efforts to inspire current and future generations of girls to push their boundaries in entrepreneurship and careers, she commits 10% of all net profits of her product lines to support girls' education. In addition, she has made numerous efforts to enhance girls’ access to practical educational programs, including:

As the youngest graduate from the University of Buffalo School of Management, where she graduated at 13, Zandra has been keen to give back to the community, which molded her into an entrepreneur.

She founded Day of the Girl Buffalo a fully paid-for day for girls to connect to their community and receive guidance on educational options and ideas. The Day features guest speakers and presentations on cyberbullying, STEM education, healthful foods, and creative arts.

Zandra doesn't stop at helping young girls find their feet in their career paths. She also launched Young Mogul Prep School to mentor young girls and equip them with skills to succeed in both the entrepreneurial and career worlds. Here, they learn financial literacy and how to start and grow a business. The prep school is geared towards helping these girls acquire the skills they need to succeed in their chosen path by exposing them to real-life scenarios and challenges and teaching them how to navigate them.

In 2016, she started The Zandra TLC Foundation to inspire and expose girls between 7-18 years from underserved communities to new possibilities in STEM, health, and career choice. The goal is to help them see the world beyond their current situation and give them the power to change their families and communities.

The foundation promotes quality programming to create economic and social change through education and entrepreneurship. Zandra attributes her success to exposure in the STEM field. Therefore, she is keen to help girls gain a strong scientific foundation to give them the power to build and solve problems creatively.

Zandra’s education efforts are not confined to her initiatives; she also participates in educational workshops. She shares her expertise and experience as a TEDx Speaker and takes part in seminars for organizations with a similar cause, such as Buffalo Public Schools, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and Girls Scout USA. She has also been a vendor sponsor of Big Brothers Big Sisters since the launch of Women Who Move the City and commits her time to speaking to groups of girls enrolled in the program.

In addition, she extends a hand to developing countries, supporting initiatives that facilitate girls’ access to education. She teamed up with Global Girls Education (GEC) to support their work in Tanzania, where she offered to donate 10% of Zandra Beauty’s sales profit from the Lemon Tea Tree product line. Like Zandra’s initiatives, GEC aims to help girls from underprivileged communities access quality education.

Zandra is one of the most selfless millionaires you’ll find out there, entirely dedicated to seeing her fellow girls make it, not just in acquiring education and skills but also in running fully equipped businesses. At her young age, she has created an unimaginable impact, helping girls establish themselves in the STEM field, from where they can understand how to think clearly and solve problems creatively and effectively, which is essential for success as an entrepreneur.