Three young and aspiring entrepreneurs turned cookies, discarded electronics, and self-written books into market-ready ventures at Dadu’s Final Market, showing how early business lessons build confidence, creativity and practical life skills in children.
The two-day market, organised on August 26-27 at Teen Hub, marked the culmination of the Dadu Startup Club programme.
Children presented businesses developed during the sessions, pitched their ideas to visitors and experienced the realities of pricing, packaging and selling their own products.
The stalls became small laboratories for ambition, problem-solving, responsibility, enterprise and self-belief.
Among them was 12-year-old Isabelle S Ali from Trinidad and Tobago, founder of Kuki, a Japanese cookie business offering classic, walnut and double-chocolate flavours.
“My cookies are special because they are health-conscious yet delicious,” she said, adding her playful slogan: “There ain’t no cookie like a cookie.”
For Isabelle, however, the greater achievement was personal.
Her mother enrolled her in the programme because she felt her daughter needed more confidence.
“Overall, I think it helped me gain confidence and learn a life skill, which is how to start a business and make future profits,” Isabelle told Gulf Times.
She said that learning to budget and earn money at a young age made her feel proud and encouraged children her age to develop their own ideas.
Eleven-year-old Qatari participant Majed Ali al-Rumaihi used the market to address a household problem he discovered with his brother.
Their venture, Remake It, turns electronic waste into artwork through kits that contain discarded components, a canvas, colours, double-sided tape, and instructions.
“We opened a drawer and found so much electronic waste inside because we like to play games a lot,” Majed said.
After researching the environmental impact of electronics, the brothers began considering how to reuse unwanted electronics rather than throw them away.
“We thought about making art pieces out of electronics,” he said, crediting Dadu, his parents and his brother for helping him develop the idea and packaging.
At another stall, 11-year-old Syrian participant Julie Alaeddin Nameh sold two books she had written, prepared and printed with her mother. The stories combine horror, mystery and drama, although Julie teasingly declined to reveal more: “If you want to know, you have to read it.”
She admitted that the process was harder than expected. “I thought it was going to be a little easier to make books,” she said. “I was stressed over making them, but now a lot of people are buying them, so I’m really happy.”
Julie hopes to become a lawyer, while keeping authorship as another possible path.“Don’t be scared,” she told other children, adding that “everything is possible” with focus.Across the market, the products differed, but the lessons were closely connected.Each child had moved beyond imagining an idea to explaining it, improving it, and presenting it to real customers.
The finale celebrated more than sales.It showed children that confidence can be practised, that environmental problems can inspire creative solutions, and that even a handwritten story can become something another person chooses to take home.