For Mya Beaudry, scrunchies are a way to honour inspirational Indigenous women

What began as a nine-year-old girl's fundraising idea has now grown into aprize-winning business, run out of her former bedroom in Gatineau, Que.

About a year ago,Mya Beaudry bought what's called a kokom scarf at an Indigenous women's craft fair. Shewas aboutto host a dance competition for young peopleat the Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival in Ottawa, and wanted to use the scarf as a prize.

Then she got really creative.

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"I love scrunchies, and we had a kokom scarf. Put that together, we made a kokom scrunchie," explained Mya.

Though COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the powwow, the business that grew out of that idea Kokom Scrunchies is now thriving.

Honouring, connecting women

A kokomscarf,traditionally worn as a head covering byIndigenous elders,features floral patterns. "In my language, [kokom] means grandmother," Mya, who is Algonquin,explained.

"Scrunchies are a great way to modernize something that was known a long time ago," said Mya's mom, Marcie Beaudry.

She explained that for her daughter,the accessory is a way to bring a little piece of their culture to the wider community.

"She wanted to make it available for everyone, young and old, not just Indigenous. Scrunchies[are]a way to make that bridge and that connection," she said.

Mya's scrunchies are named after Indigenous womenshe considers role models.

"'The Dana' is the light blue. She's my aunt and I got inspired from her to host a [dance] special. The white one is called 'Kokom Lola,' and she is my grandmother and I love her so much," Mya said.

She also sells limited edition scrunchies named after Indigenous women she doesn't know personally,but still admires.

'Sunday drop' on Instagram

Myasewsher scrunchies after school and sells them on Instagram, where customers await herweekly "Sunday drop." She saidmany of them get in touch later to show off their new purchases.

"I love when people send me videos about how excited they are, or pictures [where]they're wearing my product."

When the event at the powwow was cancelled, Mya decided to switchto a Shopify store, adding other products such as stickers and masks.

Prize-winning pitch

This spring, she applied to anationwide pitch competition for Indigenous entrepreneurs called Pow Wow Pitch.

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As the event's youngest-ever pitcher, she crossed her fingers for a shot at the youth prize. Last month, she was thrilled to learn she had won third place overall not just in the youth categoryearning hera $2,500 prize, which she plans to use to expand her product line.

"It was very exciting and happy," she said.

Because of growing demand, the Beaudrys are looking into the possibility of renting a workshop space in their home community of Kitigan Zibi, and hiring others to help with sewing.

Marcie Beaudry said the competition gave her daughter added confidence as anentrepreneur,despite her age.

"If you take a chance and put yourself out there, you can be on the same level as an adult.No one will look at you like, oh, you're just a child,'" she said.

For Mya, the lessonis simple:"No matter what, you do what you want to do."