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12-year-old entrepreneur founds LLC and secures town business license

SLIME PROPRIETOR: At 12 years old, Penelope Santos may be one of the Ocean State’s youngest entrepreneurs. The founder of Angel Stars Slime LLC makes and sells all sorts of slime. She and her mother recently secured a business license from the town of Johnston.

(Beacon Communications photos by Rory Schuler)

SLIME TIME DEBUT: At 12 years old, Penelope Santos may be one of the Ocean State’s youngest entrepreneurs. The founder of Angel Stars Slime LLC makes and sells all sorts of slime. She and her mother recently secured a business license from the town of Johnston. Penelope addressed questions from Town Council members and smiled wide after they approved her business license.

(Beacon Communications photos by Rory Schuler)

WEIGHTS & MEASURES: Santos weighs out ingredients for her slime products, including clay. She adds clay to the basic mixture to create “Butter Slime.”

(Beacon Communications photos by Rory Schuler)

STRESS RELIEF: Santos needs to work the ingredients into the slime. Usually, she wears gloves while making slime for sale. Here, she demonstrates the technique on a sample batch of one of her favorite slimes, Lavender Butter Slime.

(Beacon Communications photos by Rory Schuler)

ONE-KID ASSEMBLY LINE: Penelope Santos loves making slime. Now she hopes to share it with others, selling her product online. She designed the logo (shown here) that appears on each container of Angel Stars Slime.

(Beacon Communications photos by Rory Schuler)

Posted Thursday, September 28, 2023 12:00 am

By RORY SCHULER

The proprietor’s a tween but her business is an infant heading toward toddlerhood.

“Some parts are easy and some parts are hard,” Penelope Santos said after mixing a fresh batch of slime. “You have to take some risks to be successful.”

While Johnston has a well-deserved “business friendly” reputation, the town may now boast one of the Ocean State’s youngest entrepreneurs.

Santos walked to the front of the courtroom with her mother during August’s Town Council meeting. The audience hum dulled slightly as the 12-year-old stood at the lectern, and her mother stood off to the side recording the proceedings.

The Nicholas A. Ferri Middle School seventh-grader has formed her own company — Angel Stars Slime LLC. And she was appearing before Town Council, not as a guest, but as a business license applicant. (Technically, Penelope is the majority member of the LLC, and her mother Amanda Cornell is the minority member. Both the mother and daughter’s names are listed on the town business license.)

“I make and sell slime,” Santos said in her Hunter Avenue home earlier this week. “I also sell tote bags.”

She arranged her stock of small slime capsules, each bearing its own tiny angel logo.

Santos makes “foam bean” slime (she calls it Peanut Butter Slime), “bingsu” crunchy slime (Santos’ Pumpkin Slime is still in development), and Butter Slime, which incorporates clay, giving the slime a satisfying, buttery feel (check out her Lavender Butter Slime).

Santos designed her own logo and has taken to social media in an attempt to build her newly created slime empire.

She first learned the simple slime recipe by watching online slime-making videos.

“I just kept watching the videos,” she said, seated at her parents’ kitchen table. “Then I bought a kit on Amazon.”

The basic slime components are simple — Elmer’s glue and Borax dissolved in water. Then Santos adds texture elements, color and sometimes, scent.

“I add color and foam beads, and sometimes clay, to give it different textures,” Santos explained.

She assembled her slime-manufacturing components on the kitchen counter — a big jug of glue, the cleaning detergent dissolved in water, some purple dye and a small vial of lavender scent. She secured her long hair under a plastic “bonnet” to keep strays from entering the slime. While manufacturing slime for sale, she also dons protective gloves, to keep the product pure.

Over the summer, Santos attended a week-long class at the Providence Public Library for child entrepreneurs.

The class provided the basics and helped water the seed. The course also gave Santos confidence in her idea and her ability.

“I asked my mom and she helped,” Santos said.

An Amazon delivery arrived at the side door — more labels for her slime stock.

On Sept. 24, Santos stood behind a table at the Mini Kids Entrepreneur Fair, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Farm Fresh RI, 10 Sims Ave., Providence. So far, before the fair, Santos had only received a single online sale. But she remains optimistic.

Sunday’s Entrepreneur Fair was her public sales debut.

“There was a great turnout at the fair and all of the entrepreneurs were very successful,” according to her father, Raymi Santos. “Penelope sold close to 40 slimes in the two hours the fair was open to the public. She is currently applying to other craft fairs around the state. She also had family members that showed up to support her — cousins, grandparents and friends.”

In one day, the young business mogul multiplied her sales by nearly forty times.

Last week, while demonstrating the slime-making process, Santos measured out a few ounces of glue. She added the activating solution and stirred and mixed and stretched and tangled the mass until it started to smooth and slime-ify. She added a few drops of color and sniffed the vial of lavender.

“This is the most fun part,” she said, giggling and pulling the slime apart between her outstretched arms. “It also helped with relieving stress and anxiety.”

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Penélope’s link tree
https://linktr.ee/angelstarsslime

Penélope’s Etsy
https://www.etsy.com/shop/AngelStarsSlimeLLC