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14-year-old Louisville entrepreneurs get products featured at 2019 Emmy Awards

The girls sell hip and trendy lemon-inspired products online and at a pop-up shop. It caught Hollywood's attention, at this year's Primetime Emmy Awards.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — While many kids are out playing sports or video games with their friends, two young teenage entrepreneurs in Louisville are spending their spare time building a business, and it has now landed them in Hollywood.

"We created Ooh La Lemon because we love working together,” co-founder of Ooh La Lemon, Hailey Hertzman said.

14-year-olds Hailey Hertzman and Katie Vonder Haa have been best friends since they were kids.

"We sell cute, trendy, fun, colorful products,” Hertzman said.

Operating a lemonade stand as a kid could be pretty simple – squeeze lemons and charge a quarter for a cup, but Hailey and Katie took that idea to the next level.

"We both really loved running the lemonade stand so we thought why not run our own business with our own products,” Hertzman said.

At 12-years-old, the two won the 2017 National Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Lemonade Day – a program teaching children how to start, own and run their own business. Using their prize money, the girls co-founded Ooh La Lemon.

Credit: WHAS-TV
Ooh La Lemon

“We sell purses, dog collars, leashes, bow tie sets, kitchen supplies, dish towels, and socks,” Hertzman said.

The girls sell hip and trendy lemon-inspired products online and at a pop-up shop. It caught Hollywood's attention, at this year's Primetime Emmy Awards.

"We couldn't believe it,” Vonder Haa said.

"I'm just very proud and happy” Hailey’s mother, Michelle Hertzman said. “School is always top priority, and hopefully [Ooh La Lemon] will stay around until college and we can really expand on the business.”

Some of their Ooh La Lemon products landed in the exclusive celebrity gift bags given to the nominees. The girls flew out to Hollywood to help seal more than 300 packages filled with their products.

"It's a lot of hard work, but if you make it fun and if you find a product or service that you're truly passionate about it then it's really worth it,” Vonder Haa said.

If you want to check out some of the Ooh La Lemon products, the girls' pop-up shop will be open every Sunday and Friday through mid-October at Norton Commons.

Contact reporter Senait Gebregiorgis at SGebregior@whas11.com and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

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