Kamloops girl, 10, goes into business selling mugs at farmers' market

A young Kamloops artist has found her calling as an entrepreneur— and she’s not even a teenager yet.

Every Saturday at the Kamloops Farmers Market, Mo’s Mugs and More is set up — usually accompanied by Mo herself.

The 10-year-old artist, Morrigan Sullivan — better known as Mo — had been learning about businesses in school when she came up with the idea to start one herself.

“She had come home with this project from school, where they were learning about doing businesses and she came home just on fire, ‘I need to start a business,’” Juli Harland, Mo’s mother, told Castanet Kamloops.

Mo said she’s always loved drawing, but the idea for mugs came from her sister.

“My sister made mugs for Christmas. And then I used that idea, after at school learning about businesses and I wanted to do business stuff,” Mo said.

Harland said Mo had always had an interest in art.

“She has been really creative and artistic since forever. I think she spends most of her time when she's relaxing with a pencil in hand or something,” Harland said.

“She's always drawing. So this was just sort of a natural kind of thing for her to get into at that point.”

Despite Mo’s natural artistic talent, Harland said she didn’t expect her daughter to go into business so young.

“She's really shy. So that part was a little surprising when she came home and she was like, ‘We're gonna do this, I need to do a business,’” she said.

But, according to Harland, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

“It was a little was a little surprising when she was saying, ‘I want to be an entrepreneur,’ but hey, I'm into it. I've had a few businesses in my lifetime. So I think it's something that everybody should try at least once,” Harland explained, adding that the farmers' market is the perfect environment for her daughter to grow.

“At the farmers' market and stuff, it really gives her the opportunity to break out of that shy shell a little bit and talk to people one on one.”

Mo said the inspiration for each mug has come quite easily.

“I just like to look at stuff, and [think], 'That’d look cool on a mug,'” Mo said, describing her creative process.

Mo said her mugs are very cool, making them perfect to put both drinks and plants in — just not at the same time.

While most local businesses have take a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, Harland said Mo’s Mugs and More may not have happened without all the stay at home time created by the pandemic.

“I would say probably that being in a space where we're at home a lot more, definitely gave us the opportunity to put more time and thought into what to do to kind of beat that boredom,” she said.

“So that that may or may not have had something to do with the creation of this.”