Twelve-year-old Bianca Jemi Wariyava, through six weeks of hard work, was able to buy herself an iPhone 14. But how? Just by selling homemade bread, Khaleej Times reported.
Bianca, who is in seventh grade and lives in Dubai, wanted a new phone but her parents were unable to buy her one under the current circumstances. However, an idea came to her in February and she decided to work on it.
Her Filipina mother Gemini Wariyava once baked her some bread for school for lunch which she shared with her friends. “They loved the taste and fluffiness of the bread. They loved it so much they asked me to bring some again the next day,” Bianca told Khaleej Times.
One of her friends gave her the idea of selling the bread instead of giving them for free and that’s when Bianca realised she could buy herself a new phone with the money.
Bianca’s parents are expert bakers and have worked in five-star hotels in Dubai and when they learned that their daughter was planning on selling bread, they supported her. Her father gave her Dh100 and her mother gave her baking expertise.
“She had been helping us bake at our pizza parlour when she was five years old. She has been interested in baking since then,” said Gemini.
On the first day, Bianca sold only four pieces but as time passed, she was selling over 60 pieces a day on average. She not only bakes plain flavours, but also others like plain soft rolls, oreo, ube, cheese, turkey salami with cheese, and chicken franks.
And just like that, Bianca had collected nearly Dh3,000, enough to buy an iPhone 14.
The little girl shared that she was at times made fun of in school.
“A few students looked down on me. They spoke among themselves, saying ‘why can’t she ask her parents directly for a phone rather than selling bread?’ They even questioned our financial status,” Bianca said.
Bianca, a seventh-grader in Dubai, desired a new phone but her parents were unable to afford one at the time due to financial constraints. She had a fantastic insight in February.
She once shared some bread she had baked with her classmates and packed in her lunchbox by her Filipina mother Gemini Wariyava. “They loved the taste and fluffiness of the bread. They loved it so much they asked me to bring some again the next day,” Bianca told Bianca sold four pieces of bread for Dh10, and on the first day of her venture, she received only two orders, but she kept going.
The next thing she knew, she was selling over 60 pieces a day on average. “It’s not just plain bread I baked. I have flavours like plain soft roll, oreo, ube, cheese, turkey salami with cheese, and chicken franks — which my teachers and schoolmates fell in love with,” said the seventh-grader.
Then one of her pals gave her an idea: Instead of giving them away for free, why not sell them? “And that was when I realised I could buy iPhone 14 with the money I could earn,” she said.
Both of Bianca’s parents are skilled bakers who have experience working in Dubai’s five-star hotels. She really watched them bake in the kitchen as a child. They backed her wholeheartedly when they found out about her plan to market bread. Her mother donated her baking skills, while her Indian father Jemibhai Wariyava gave her the starting capital of Dh100.
After doing her homework in the evenings, she would bake. She would record the orders and only prepare those that were on her list. “Bread is a very fast-moving commodity, and with the secret recipe of my parents, I had fast turnovers,” she said. By the second week of March, she had enough money to buy the iPhone 14 worth nearly Dh3,000.
However, this didn’t stop her and Bianca’s next goal is to open her own bakery and coffee shop.
