She may be just 19 years old, but Alina Morse—known as the Lollipop Girl—has already made a big impact and earned her entrepreneurial chops—and she’s sharing some of her best advice and inspiration for entrepreneurs and people with big goals.
On a recent episode of The Kim Gravel Show, Alina, the CEO of Zolli Candy (which she founded at the age of seven), talked with Kim about how she overcame challenges and rejection, and how she uses her success to give back and bridge generational gaps.
She also discussed practical advice for starting a business, the importance of passion, and the power of resilience.
At seven, a trip to the bank with her dad set Alina on the path to where she is now: a success according to any standards.
The teller offered Alina a lollipop after helping her dad with his banking, and Alina asked her dad if it was okay. He said, “Well, it’s up to you. But, you know, you’ll get cavities.”
Her first thought was to create candy that she could eat without her parents saying no. Early on in her research, though, she discovered tooth decay is one of the greatest epidemics kids in America (and the world) face.
“That broke my heart,” she said, “learning that tooth decay, which is, in most cases, a preventable disease, was affecting so many kids in the United States and internationally because they didn’t have access to proper dental care.”
She combined her ideas—a candy she and her friends could eat with parental permission and the desire to help others—and created Zolli.
Kim said Alina epitomizes the entrepreneurial spirit and asked how Alina’s parents influenced her entrepreneurial journey.
Alina said her parents have always instilled in her that she can do whatever she puts her mind to. Because her dad was a CPA and her mom worked in sales, she saw both sides of business—the numbers and the personable, fun, selling side.
“I’d like to think that I picked up on those skills early on,” she said. “But really where their support came in was letting me be independent in my thought and pushing the idea that it doesn’t matter if something doesn’t exist; you can go and be that person. It doesn’t matter how old you are, you can be the person that makes that happen and you can make that mark. They never really put barriers on.”
They were supportive, and at the same time, they encouraged Alina to do the work herself; she did the research and created the product. “That idea of not having it being handed to me,” she said, “that built the work ethic I have today.”
That work ethic has led to success: Alina made her first TV appearance on Good Morning America at age nine, Zolli Candy has sold out several times on QVC, and the company’s foundation has provided millions of lollipops (which help with oral hygiene) and education to children across the country.
Along with success, though, comes pressure. Kim asked Alina whether she experiences pressure and how she copes with it.
That first TV appearance on Good Morning America felt like a lot of pressure, Alina said, but it also helped prepare her to overcome high-pressure situations.
More importantly, she said, “I really know my stuff. I am living this business every single day, and I’m so passionate about it succeeding and about our mission here, that nothing rattles me. I know my crap. You can ask me any question, and I know it. And that confidence and security in my own knowledge, I mean, you can’t beat it.”
“The pressure’s a lot, but if you know your stuff and you’re on top of it, you can handle it well.”
With that in mind, how did Alina stick with her idea and her business to see it grow to where it is today?
While starting a company at any age is a feat, Alina said, she believes starting Zolli as a child was a benefit: “I didn’t have the baggage or the doubt that so many people struggle with as they’re entering adulthood.”
Most adults have experienced failure and rejection, and they believe they have to take the safe route.
Younger Alina, on the other hand, said, “I was very fortunate to not come into the idea of entrepreneurship or the concept of starting a business with all the negative connotation. I went into with guns ablazing. ‘I have an idea. I have a passion. I am going to make this happen, come hell or high water.’”
While the hardship came later, as her naiveté faded, she maintained her curious, tenacious perspective.
That perspective has been important as Alina faced rejection and hardship.
“I’ve been told no so many times, it started to just kind of go numb in my mind. But at first, it really hit me. I took it very personally, as anyone would. You have a great idea. You put everything behind it. Somebody tells you no, it breaks you.”
For Alina, “having my support system and surrounding myself with people that were really motivated and passionate about the business as well, has been really helpful. So finding the right team members and then ultimately having my family and friends behind me, supporting my decisions, and helping to fuel the good feelings, the happy feelings, even in the face of rejection. I also read a lot of business books, I listen to a lot of business podcasts, and I just try to find the kinship of the community, because everybody gets told no, and it doesn’t feel as personal. It’s all about community,” she said.
“I am a religious person, and so turning to God and having my family, you know, being a religious family, always looking for the blessings and looking for the good and silver linings, I think that’s always in the heart of what we do as entrepreneurs.”
Kim said that she coaches her entrepreneurial son to think of “rejections” as “redirects.” When one door shuts, another one opens, she said.
Alina agreed. In addition to rejection making her mentally tougher, she said that another opportunity opens.
At first, you may not recognize a door opening, or maybe you don’t see it in the short term, but whenever you get through rejection, it’s a reminder that you can get through anything.
“I try to walk away from any negative situation where I’m facing rejection with a positive spin, or at least one thing I learned,” she said.
One such situation happened right after Alina’s Good Morning America appearance: she put Zolli up for sale on Amazon, and when people received their orders, the candy had melted in transit. Although it didn’t affect the taste of the candy, it didn’t look like it should.
“I felt so terrible that these people had taken a chance on a small business, made an order; they got the product and it’s melted. And then the reviews started to come in, and it’s just like, ‘We wanted to support this company, but the product has melted.’”
Alina said she and her team couldn’t have foreseen it and didn’t know to heat test the candy, but because they wanted to be a national company (which meant they had to be able to ship nationally), they jumped on it as soon as they could.
“It took us about three or four months to get a new formulation and process down solid and create and start to produce the updated product. But once we did, our sales were able to skyrocket and we could ship internationally.”
Although Alina said she probably missed out on some “kid stuff,” her parents were good about helping her find a balance between work and fun.
“I would never have changed the things that I did miss, because I’ve realized now, being a college student, it’s the same stuff … so I really wouldn’t change any of my childhood experiences for the world.”
She was on her high school dance and tennis teams, she went to every school dance, she was on homecoming court, and had no shortage of school experiences.
It’s all been worth it, because Alina is living her mission: not just to build her company to be the best it can be, but to make an impact.
She said Zolli Candy has done $10 million in retail—and almost all of it has been reinvested.
“First and foremost, we’re a cause-based organization,” she said. “So we donate over ten percent of profits to support oral health education in schools. We donate millions and millions of lollipops to not only our nonprofit but Special Olympics and JDRF. And any organization that asks, we try to support. I’m about mission first and moral first.”
“I think we’re lining up the building blocks to hopefully have a very successful future,” she added.
The foundation she mentioned is the Million Smiles Initiative, through which Zolli Candy donates millions of lollipops as well as lesson plans to schools across America.
“What we want to share is that, yeah, we may look a little bit more gourmet on the shelf, but this is a supplementary product and an accessible product to help aid in oral healthcare and oral hygiene for kids.”
Finally, Kim asked Alina how she got to be such a big-picture thinker, and what advice she’d share with someone who has an idea and wants to put feet to the ground and take action to make it come to pass.
“No one else is going to do it for you,” Alina said. “If you have a great idea, go make it happen.”
In modern times, there are so many resources, information, grants, and accelerators. “There is no better time to take your idea and make it into reality. But if you’re not passionate about it for the right reasons, it’s not going to happen. If you’re not willing to throw everything you’ve got at this idea, it’s not going to happen. You have to be ready to jump in, both feet forward. You can’t half-ass entrepreneurship.”
Alina Morse is the CEO and Founder of Zolli Candy, a mission-driven, sugar-free candy company she started at just seven years old. She is also the CEO and Founder of the Million Smiles Initiative. Alina is the youngest person ever to appear on the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine and the youngest to be featured in the Inc. 5000. She is currently a student at Michigan State University, Class of 2027.
The Kim Gravel Show is a top women’s lifestyle podcast where Kim shares her message of confidence and encouragement with a side of laughter and fun. The show features inspiring, topical conversations with thought leaders, CEOs, and celebrities tailored to give listeners the insight they need to help them discover their purpose, find their confidence, and love who they are. On each episode Kim tackles the topics that women care about in a way that will make you laugh, make you think, and help you see your life in a new, more positive way.
The Kim Gravel Show is a celebration of the stories that shape us. It's about laughing together and not taking ourselves too seriously. It's about the wisdom we've gathered and the hardships we've overcome. It's about looking at the woman you see in the mirror and remembering that she is beautiful inside and out. This is a show about remembering that no matter what you’ve been through you can love who you are right now.
Y’all, life is hard, but we can do it together.