14-Year-Old Entrepreneur Christon Lennon, Founder of Imperfectly Perfect Candles
- lydiawang214
- Jul 12, 2025
- 4 min read
Recently, I had a truly insightful coffee chat with a 14-year-old entrepreneur, Christon Lennon. Based in the Bronx, he's the founder of Imperfectly Perfect Candles, a handmade candle business.
Christon handles nearly every single part of his business, from personally creating molds, pouring wax, to even building his community online. While reading this, you will gain a valuable perspective on what it's like to build a product-based business from the ground up. I first wanted to learn how young entrepreneurs step outside of their comfort zones to turn ideas into action -- but Christon taught me something deeper: entrepreneurship isn't just about chasing success. It's about storytelling, resilience, and making an impact.
Selling with a Story
To begin, Christon started his social media career by taking photos of his candles and editing them in CapCut. "I wasn't seeing that much growth." "One day I was watching a video and a gentleman came on and he said, 'You need to build a personal brand, no matter what you sell.'" Christon then started posting face-to-face videos on his Instagram page, pitching his story. "Over time, I found different ways to articulate that message." He also stated that he found many different ways to tell people who he was and why he was selling these candles. His most popular video as of today is a "POV Selling" short video where he went up to a man and pitched his story, his candle, and closed the deal. He explained that he came across a salesman on social media creating this type of content, and decided to take the opportunity to utilize his interactions with people and apply that same strategy to "see similar success." "Content is all about learning from others and figuring out different ways to articulate your message." What I found so fascinating about his strategy is how he shares his story. Instead of people buying solely the product, people also buy the brand and the story behind it.
The Highs and Lows
No matter what business you start, you always come across stumbling blocks. "Honestly, order fulfillment has been very difficult for me." Since Christon still attends high school, "[he] only has so many hours in between the time that I get home and the time that I go to sleep." In a specific instance, Christon described how his orders tend to fluctuate. One week, he received just a couple of orders. The next week, over 30 came in -- many with multiple candles per customer. "I was so stressed out about how I was going to fulfill those orders, because it was unprecedented growth." "My packaging got sloppy. I had a 5x5 box, and for one customer, I packaged all four candles in that 5x5 box. When the package arrived, everything was broken. I was devastated." However, Christon was able to work through his mistake and learn that his packaging had to improve. From my own experience, balancing both schoolwork and a running business is incredibly difficult. It's very easy to make mistakes if your mind isn't fully focused. Focusing too much on one thing or another can potentially cause both activities to slip. His ability to learn from failure and push through obstacles showed me how maturity and emotional control play a critical role in entrepreneurship, even at 14.
Advice for Future Youth Entrepreneurs
After listening to Christon's story, I asked for advice for future youth entrepreneurs. I noticed that the biggest part he stressed was to understand that, as an entrepreneur, you have to face both the highs and lows with confidence. Christon faced a large number of rejections from people in his community at first. "When I used to go into these stores, my confidence used to be shot." However, after getting back in the car, he rehearsed and discussed his pitch with his mother. "Eventually, we came up with something that made sense; what I was saying earlier didn't make sense at all." "I then went to the next place and got my first sale of the day." His advice? Stay consistent, and don't let rejection defeat you. "You can't let rejection get you down too much."
Another general piece of advice Christon emphasizes is to focus on marketing and branding. "For example, my mom's an author. She wrote a phenomenal book. But it just doesn't sell the way she would want it to." "The reason being is that she doesn't put herself out there -- she doesn't market the book." This point highly resonated with me. In business, a great product with poor marketing can be outperformed by an average product with great marketing. As Christon put it, "At the end of the day, people don't buy a product. They buy the person behind that."
What stuck with me most came near the end of our conversation. Christon told me, "I want to build a brand that shows people -- especially in my community -- that with enough determination, anything is possible." Growing up in the Bronx, he noticed that many kids didn't have role models to look up to. He hopes his journey can help change that. That's when I realized: this business isn't just about candles. It's about impact. For Christon, every sale is a chance to connect with someone, to share a story, and to inspire. Profit might keep a business running, but purpose is what makes it meaningful. Above all, that was the most powerful lesson I took from our chat.
If you want to support or follow Christon's work, you can find his candles and content here:
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