Lizzie Marie Likness has some great life experiences under her belt: appearing on the Rachael Ray show, demonstrating cooking techniques in a Taste of Atlanta, and recently being featured in a CNN article entitled, “8 kid entrepreneurs to watch.” That’s right, “kid” entrepreneurs. Lizzie has been in the kitchen since age 2, when she helped her mother, Doreen, make applesauce every winter. At age 6, Likness began developing her own business and brand name – Lizzie Marie Cuisine (LMC). Likness, now 11, is sending daily cooking tips and tricks into the blogosphere and traveling the country teaching parents and children how to eat healthy.
Q: How and when did you start Lizzie Marie Cuisine?
Lizzie: At the age of 6, I talked with my parents and asked them if I could take horseback riding lessons, but I wanted to pay for the lessons. My parents asked me how I could raise money. I suggested that I bake and sell healthy treats at a local farmers market. I’ve always been curious about food and constantly ask my parents questions on how to cook healthy. My family did not always cook healthy because my parents used to be overweight. After my parents lost over 100 pounds, we started to cook healthy. Realizing how much I enjoyed sharing my passion of healthy cooking with other people inspired me to create Lizzie Marie Cuisine in 2006.
Q: How and when did all the media frenzy about Lizzie Marie Cuisine start?
Lizzie : In 2007, I asked my dad to create a website for Lizzie Marie Cuisine because I wanted to teach people how to have fun cooking healthy with my cooking videos. Thus http://www.LizzieMarieCuisine.com was launched. When I was 8 years old, I heard about an organization called “DoSomething.org,” which offers grants to young people. I received $2,500 for my idea of “Tasty Tidbits” cooking classes. Because of receiving this grant, I was asked to appear on the Rachael Ray show and have CNN write the “8 kid entrepreneurs to watch” story. I have a manager who heard about me through someone at his office. With his help, I became a spokesperson for the American Heart Association, which led to LMC working with NFL’s First Down for Fitness.
Q: How do you think starting a business at a young age has affected your childhood?
Lizzie: I definitely think I’m still able to have a normal life; it’s not like theres paparazzi lined up waiting for me. I’m still able to hang out with friends. I think LMC has given me opportunities that most 11-year-old haven’t been able to experience. It’s not taking away my childhood, it’s a part of my childhood. I’ve been cooking since I was 2 years old – cooking has always been a part of my daily life, so LMC is a bigger expansion of my everyday life.
Q: Where do you see LMC in the future?
Lizzie: I love to have a LMC television show, restaurant and product line. I see LMC becoming a brand, but I don’t want to have LMC as a career for the rest of my life.
Q: LMC already has a web show, on WebMD, right?
Lizzie: Yeah, we’ve opened a kids portal on WebMD.com, where we have a series of videos teach kids how to cook and live healthy. I was really honored because Jamie Oliver [celebrity chef] was WebMD’s first choice. When he wasn’t available, Lizzie Marie was second. On the show, I demonstrate my own recipes. It’s all about teaching kids healthy eating can be fun. We filmed 12 shows last December, and we may be doing more soon. VIEW THE VIEDOS HERE.
Q: Being from Woodstock, Georgia, how did you become an intern for Bluebird, a Griffin-based Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program?
Lizzie: Last year, Patti Robinson [director of Bluebird CSA] invited me to the Bluebird Festival to do a cooking demo. My family had never heard about CSA share boxes before. We didn’t know there was such a direct outlet from farmer to table. We really liked it, and now Bluebird is our main source of veggies.
Q: So what are you doing for your internship?
Lizzie: Bluebird is doing something over the summer called “kidsboxes,” share boxes specifically geared for children. For each kidsbox, I write a recipe that includes the ingredients of the box. READ SOME OF LIZZIE’S RECIPES HERE.
Q: You blogged recently about a trip to New York City. What did you do while you were up there?
Lizzie: I visited “Sarabeth’s Kitchen.” Sarabeth [a well-known baker in the NYC area] contacted me through twitter and told me if I was ever in NYC to stop by her bakery and come bake with her. [A video of Lizzie and Sarabeth can be found on Lizzie’s blog at http://www.lizziemariecuisine.com.] I was headed up there anyway for “The New Friend Event,” where guest speakers and celebrities talk and meet with brand to come up with a potential partnerships. I was on a panel with Tori Spelling, Dean Mcdermott and Kevin Jonas talking about how technology impacts the modern family. I was starstruck the whole time, seeing people like Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore.
Q: In what way did you contribute to the panel of speakers?
Lizzie: I was asked to speak on the panel because I participate in a online homeschool program where I take high school classes from Stanford University. Technology has enabled me to take a class where I have classmates from Denmark, Belgium and China but have never actually met anyone. I know them through technology.
Q: So do you do all the cooking for the household?
Lizzie: My dad is the breakfast guy and he likes to cook french toast and hash browns. My mom and I are the two people who do the dinner cooking in the house. We’ll do it together. It’s also kind of cool because if I make dinner, she’ll offer to clean up. It’s all about taking shifts.
Q: Doreen, as Lizzie’s mother, how involved are you in controlling her schedule and guiding her through the the process of starting a brand?
Doreen: Lizzie sets her own pace. She tells us yay or nay about whatever opportunities come her way. We don’t make those decisions for her. We’re just going along with her pace. Since her manager is in L.A., all the local events are still coming through me, but it’s nice to have a team of people to help us out. I’m still making sure everything is still packed up, all the ingredients are purchased and ready to go. Though I help Lizzie upload and edit her blog entries, Lizzie writes all the blogs herself.
Lizzie: “It’s just me, mom and dad just working out of our house, basically.”
The GRIP 
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