The Kids Are Alright

What were you doing when you were a teenager? Meet the Gen Z entrepreneurs who’ve founded game-changing companies and are shaking up the business world for the better. Let’s hear it for the girls, writes Alley Pascoe

- Alley Pascoe

ALI KITINAS,18

Founder of Freedom Scrub and One Two Many

Marie Claire: You were Australia’s youngest CEO. Tell us about founding your first business at 11.

Ali Kitinas: My first business was called OTS Marketing, and it was a small social media agency. Being young and growing up on social media, I had a lot of my mum’s business colleagues asking me, “Can you help me with Instagram? I have no idea how to use it!” So I thought why not turn it into a business and help startups that don’t have a lot of money and can’t hire a bigger agency?

mc: Then at 16 you became the founder and CEO of Freedom Scrub. What was your inspiration for the business?

AK: Founding Freedom Scrub was a serendipitous moment. I had just come back from a trip to Kolkata, India, where I was working with a charity called the Hope Foundation that rescues young girls from human trafficking. When I came back to Australia, I was introduced to the Freedom Hub, an organisation that works with women and girls in Australia affected by human trafficking. When I learnt that this was happening in my own country, I knew I wanted to help. At the same time, I was making body scrubs as gifts for people for Christmas. It all clicked when I realised the Freedom Hub has a cafe, which raises money for their Survivor School. I decided to recycle their coffee grinds to make body scrubs and support their work.

mc: It’s a big mission. Have you felt underestimated because of your age?