Changing The Game, One Face At A Time

At 14, Rabia Ghoor launched her makeup and skincare online beauty store. She made her first sale one year later, and left school to pursue the business full time at 16. Today, this 18-year-old teenpreneur is well on her way to building an empire.

- Diana Albertyn

VIRGIN GROUP founder Richard Branson. Tumblr originator David Karp. Multiple Grammy Award winner Aretha Franklin. Oscar-winning director Quentin Tarantino. These incredibly successful leaders in their fields all dropped out of high school at the age of 15. Swiitch Beauty founder and ‘teenpreneur’ Rabia Ghoor is in good company.

“I am a freshly-minted millionaire who ended up skipping over the typical life struggles that most young men and women go through that serve to build their character. If I’m not careful, the result will be success without respect, wealth without restraint and power without responsibility — and just like that, things can spiral out of control,” says Rabia, quoting Jordan Belfort’s book Way of the Wolf.

While her peers prepare for their Matric dance this year, Rabia has just celebrated Swiitch Beauty’s third birthday with a pop-up store in Milpark, Johannesburg. Although she says she wishes she could participate in this rite of passage, thanks to her company pushing out between 2 500 and 3 000 orders a month, “when they’re writing exams, I’ll be holidaying in Mauritius,” she beams.

“The money has been great, but at present turnover is not my core focus. My main purpose is to provide my customers with the best product at the best price and build a sustainable business that will bear fruit in the future.”

FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS TO A BIG IDEA

When the break bell sounded and all the other kids stormed the playground, a ten-year-old Rabia would set up her stand and sell stickers. By the following year she’d graduated to selling mini buckets as rubbish bins her classmates would use instead of multiple trips to the class dustbin. “I bought them for about R5 each and sold them for R7,” she explains.