Setting her Foundation: Student Adriana Lopez Starts Cosmetics Business

By Annie Lin, Press & Written Media Co-Lead

Wave Learning Festival is known for what it can offer to its students, but what do students take away from the courses we teach?

One student, Adriana Lopez, took the financial literacy skills she learned from a Wave course and used them to start Latina Cosmetics, a health and beauty shop that offers vegan and cruelty-free products.

Lopez first found out about Wave through our partnership with the Sunday Friends Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to breaking the generational cycle of poverty by providing children and parents with resources that support a successful upbringing.

Lopez, along with 74 other students, enrolled in the Wave 2 course “Securing the Bag: Budgeting 101,” which covered the basics of financial literacy and introduced topics such as loans, managing personal expenses and different types of bank accounts. After taking the course, Lopez decided to start Latina Cosmetics out of her love for cosmetics and makeup.

“I really enjoy making my own products. I also wanted to start making my own money being my own boss,” she said.

However, being a student entrepreneur is not easy. Having just entered her sophomore year of high school, Lopez admits that it has been harder to keep her focus on Latina Cosmetics now that the academic year and extracurricular activities have started up again.

“Not only do I go to school, but I play soccer … now that practice (has) started, I have to keep everything on an agenda,” she explained. “I work on my business mostly over the weekend (and) in the afternoons after school is done. … My parents also help (keep) everything organized so I still get the time to be a kid.”

Looking into the future, Lopez is planning on growing her cosmetics business and pursuing a business major once in college. To other aspiring student entrepreneurs, Lopez believes the best piece of advice is “to start small and slowly keep on going.”

We at Wave are so proud of Adriana for taking initiative and following her passions — we can’t wait to see where she goes! Be sure to check out and support Latina Cosmetics and keep on the lookout for other fun, inspiring Wave classes like the one she took on our seminars page!

Wave Learning Festival is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing free, live seminars, tutoring, college application help, career mentorship, and more. If you would like to learn more about Wave Learning Festival, check out our website or contact us at hello@wavelf.org.