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While most 13-year-olds are busy with homework or hanging out with friends, one Singaporean teen is juggling website updates, inventory checks and orders \u2014 all for her side hustle.<\/p>\n
Meet Eleora Liang, the pint-sized boss of A Little Ripple, an online store for pickleball<\/a> paddles that she runs out of her family\u2019s home in Ipoh, where she\u2019s homeschooled<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I use work as an excuse to skip homework,\u201d Eleora, who used to attend South View Primary School, admits with a laugh.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll tell my mum, \u2018I need to update the website.\u2019 She usually says okay.\u201d<\/p>\n Back in 2021, Eleora\u2019s parents, who are in their 40s, decided to \u201cescape the rat race\u201d in Singapore and go on what they call a road trip, spending time in Thailand and Malaysia. They lived in Chiang Mai for two years before moving to Ipoh. They have not decided where their next stop will be.<\/p>\n Homeschooling gave Eleora the time to explore her passions \u2014 violin and, unexpectedly, business.<\/p>\n As part of her project in 2022, her mum, a former math tutor, encouraged her to start a small venture so she could learn life skills.<\/p>\n The first attempt \u2014 selling stationery \u2014 didn\u2019t take off, so they pivoted to pickleball paddles, then a buzzy new sport in Asia<\/p>\n Eleora borrowed S$2K from her parents to get started and by January 2024, she was selling pickleball paddles, made in China and Vietnam, on her website<\/a>\u00a0and Carousell.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n