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Forget looking for summer jobs, these teens made their own

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[Teens, why get stuck with a run-of-the-mill summer job when you can make your own?]

While other teenagers her age were printing off resumes to clinch boring summer jobs, Jordana Petruccelli was out banging on doors in the neighbourhood looking for clients for her burgeoning photography business.

“I’m just doing freelance work (starting) in the neighbourhood – portraits of people and pets and animals,” the 17-year-old told Yahoo Canada Finance. “My friends work summer jobs… I don’t really like doing that, I like doing my own thing – I really like the freedom.”

In addition to family photo shoots and candid shots, she also recently photographed a series of events for her school Bishop Allen Academy in Toronto. The entrepreneurial teenager says she’s had around 15 clients, some paid, some volunteer.

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“I want to be a photographer so I thought this would be a good opportunity to start up now and see how it goes,” says Petruccelli.

She says it helps to have the support of her parents who are both entrepreneurs themselves and to be able to use social media like Instagram to get her name out there.

“I think it kind of runs in the family, I’ve been inspired by them,” she adds.

But Petruccelli is not the only entrepreneurial teen making her own summer job.

Muskoka native Paul Howe recently caught the eye of CTV Barrie after the 16-year-old launched a business called “Howe Deep”, turning his passion for diving into an enterprise where he finds items lost at the bottom of the lakes – like glasses, rings, boat motors and keys – and reunites them with their owners.

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[Paul (left) searching for a lost item in a Muskoka lake. / Howe Deep]

“We’ve got a fun little thing do to help people out, and we get to hang out together,” Robert, Howe’s grandfather and business partner, told CTV. The company typically gets five calls a year.

Ashumi Doshi, a 15-year-old at R. H. King Academy in Scarborough, launched her business Classy Crafters two years ago when her teacher told her the paper earrings she made were “business-worthy.”

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[A set of Doshi’s earrings, available on her e-shop. / Screengrab ]

“He gave me encouragement to pursue my business and soon many of my teachers and peers started noticing my jewelry,” she told Yahoo Canada Finance adding that she’s since expanded into a whole line of waterproof, eco-friendly earrings, necklaces and rings. Doshi was also one of six winners out of 212 entries at Discovery, the Ontario Centre of Excellence’s Young Entrepreneurs Make Your Pitch contest.

Part of the prize was enrollment in the Province of Ontario and the Enterprise Toronto’s Summer Company program, which offers mentorship and financial support for budding youth entrepreneurs. Petruccelli is also enrolled in the program.

“To me entrepreneurship is the difference between being a boss and having a boss,” explains Doshi. “I love being given the chance to create new opportunities, my own career and my own path for my future – I am able to continuously grow and learn and earn money while pursuing my passion.”

Programming geared towards fostering entrepreneurial youth has risen country-wide, with more than 25 regional- and national-focused programs.

It’s partially a response to the youth (15- to 24-year-olds) unemployment rate, which sat at 13.0 per cent in June, a 0.3 per cent drop from April, according to StatsCan. In Saskatchewan, where youth unemployment is one of the lowest in Canada, groups like Saskatoon’s Street Force Youth Centre have stepped in to fill the gaps.

Last summer the inner-city drop-in centre came up with the concept for an ice cream stand called The Scoop, staffing it with kids from the program.

“Sometimes they didn’t know how to get into the workforce because that wasn’t modeled for them by friends and family,” the program director Chris Randall told the CBC. “Other times there just wasn’t consideration from managers, given their background and the neighbourhood they came from.”

The youth group launched a crowdfunding campaign, raising $3,581 last year and opened in June 2016.

“One of the biggest indicators of (inner-city teens) staying in school and finishing school by 17-18 years old is having a summer job,” he adds. “Just providing that opportunity for them, and also feeling like they’re successful in their lives plays a big role in that.”

Full disclosure: Writer Andrew Seale profiles companies for the City of Toronto’s StartupHere program, which is overseen by Enterprise Toronto, the same group who runs Summer Company.