How a 16-Year-Old Created a $15 Million Business

Millions of girls worldwide have been impacted by Juliette Brindak Blake and her company, Miss O and Friends. When she was just ten years old, Juliette began drawing pictures of girls like herself that would eventually inspire the launch of the Miss O and Friends website when she was sixteen.

The aim of the site was to be a safe online space for middle-school-aged girls like her sister. The whole family took a gamble on Juliette’s brainchild and even risked her college fund to build it!

Today, Miss O provides a safe media platform for tween girls with content that is created by girls, for girls. As a result, Miss O has helped to build self-esteem in millions of girls around the world.

Juliette is also a creator and executive producer of the first family-friendly series to launch on the YouTube Premium platform in 2017.

Her popular YouTube series, Hyperlinked, presented by the Disney Digital Network, is based on her own story and focuses on positive female friendships, entrepreneurship, STEM and coding.

More recently, Miss O launched a 100% safe socialization app for girls called the Girl2Girl Wall. The app provides a positive and empowering space for girls to connect with each other.

Let’s look at how Juliette’s tween doodles helped her become a millionaire media entrepreneur.

HOW MISS O GETS ITS TRAFFIC

With 63% of its traffic coming directly to the site, nearly 22% from referrals, and nearly 10% from organic search, Miss O and Friends is the go-to destination for tween girls.

But what makes Miss O and Friends so popular? In a word: content. The site is packed with articles, videos, and quizzes that are all designed to appeal to tween girls.

With so much to offer, it’s no surprise that the site is so popular.

Social media accounts for a really tiny amount of their traffic, and nearly 80% of it comes from Instagram.

WHAT TYPES OF KEYWORDS DOES MISS O TARGET?

Their top pages include “How to tell when a boy is flirting”, “Music that gets stuck in your head” and personality quizzes such as “Is your friend a real friend?” and “What type of mermaid are you?”

HOW THEIR PAGES LOOK

The branding is beautifully done. The colors are bright and inviting. The images are high quality and well-chosen. And the overall design is clean and clutter-free.

Juliette’s mother, who is a graphic designer, created the original caricature drawings that inspired Miss O and Friends.

These cartoons are still used throughout the site and in their social media accounts. The drawings help to create a cohesive and recognizable brand that tween girls can easily connect with.

WHAT DOES THE SITE DO WELL?

The site does an excellent job of delivering content that is relevant and engaging to its target audience.

The articles are well-written and cover a wide range of topics that are of interest to tween girls.

The design is clean and clutter-free, making it easy to navigate. And the branding is strong and consistent, helping to create a recognizable and trustworthy brand.

They’re using Robly for their email sign up forms which allows you to add beautiful forms to your site easily and manage your subscribers.

WHAT’S THEIR LINK PROFILE LIKE?

Miss O is doing pretty well, attracting relevant links from high authority websites such as Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue and Medium.com.

Some backlinks are due to articles about Juliette’s amazing story of starting the site when she was just 16, then Miss O and Friends being valued at $15m by Proctor and Gamble a few short years later.

HOW DOES MISS O AND FRIENDS MAKE ITS MONEY?

Juliette has mentioned in interviews that she was initially very reluctant to place ads on the site because of the demographics of their audience. However, tween kids are not exactly known for their spending power and the site had to be monetized somehow!

They eventually placed ads on the site, but they are very careful about the ads that they allow. All of the ads must be age-appropriate.

They also make revenue through sponsored posts.

There are articles on NFTs with affiliate links to Adobe.

In addition, they also sell branded merchandise with the “Cool Girls” cartoon images.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM MISS O AND FRIENDS WEBSITE?

There are a few things that we can learn from their success:

• Produce high-quality, relevant content that appeals to your target audience.
• Keep your design clean and clutter-free.
• Use strong branding to create a recognizable and trustworthy brand.
• Be careful about the types of ads that you allow on your site. Make sure they are age-appropriate and relevant to your audience.
• Consider selling branded merchandise to generate additional revenue.

By following the example of Miss O and Friends, you can create a successful website that appeals to your target audience and generates revenue.