Natalie Long, a 16-year-old high school student and entrepreneur from Denver, Colorado, recently teamed up with IMMP to launch her metal straw company, Strawngerwrld. Strawngerwrld donates 10% of its sales to the International Marine Mammal Project. Natalie hopes that Strawngerwrld will help reduce the amount of plastic in our oceans and contribute to a more sustainable planet. To understand the background behind how the idea of Strawngerwrld came into fruition, how the launch was made possible, and her words of advice for other young entrepreneurs, our intern Hannah Press conducted this short interview to learn more behind the scenes. Please support Natalie’s launch and IMMP by visiting the Strawngerwrld website: https://strawngerwrld.com/.
Hannah Press (HP): What first inspired you to start Strawngerwrld?
Natalie Long (NL): I think a lot of things inspired me, but what mostly inspired me was when one of my friends got a reusable straw, which I thought was really interesting. Soon after that, I watched a video of a straw in a turtle's nose, which was very hard for me to watch. I realized then that plastic straws in oceans were a bigger issue than I thought. I recently went to Thailand and Asia and saw how common plastic is used in those areas because plastic is low cost, and these countries have less money to spend, which leads to heavy use of plastic, which then ends up in the ocean and impacting the animals in a negative way.
HP: Tell me about what problem your business hopes to solve?
NL: Well, definitely to reduce the amount of plastic in the oceans, because plastic is one of the biggest pollutants in our oceans. And, of course, straws are a small part of the plastic in the oceans, such as plastic bags and water bottles. But I just wanted to kick start the motion and make plastic less dominant than it is now.
HP: Who was your greatest supporter during the building of Strawngerwrld?
NL: I don’t have just one person of course. It was definitely family members like my mom, my grandpa, and my aunt. Those are the people I ran my ideas past, and they supported me by giving me new ideas and ways to improve, everytime I would approach them with something new that I wanted to add. And definitely my friends too, who would help me advertise and promote it, which was super helpful.
HP: What challenges have you faced in the creation of your business?
NL: Well, I am the type of person where I don’t want to share anything until it’s perfect. So I had to make sure that everything on my website was good, and always ask myself ‘is the product good enough; does the website look good enough’ for everyone who ends up buying these straws. So basically, launching the business in general was the hardest part because I had to make sure everything looked perfect.
HP: What was most surprising to you about the process of creating Strawngerwrld?
NL: One thing that surprised me the most was the amount of support I got, and how much people would tell me how cool it was what I was doing, and their thoughts about it, and how much people helped me improve my website, products, and promotion. The support was very surprising to me because I did not expect to get as much as I did.
HP: What attracted you to want to work with IMMP?
NL: Before launching Strawngerwrld, I knew I wanted to work with a nonprofit charity or organization. I came across Earth Island which was a really cool website, especially the ‘about us’ page grabbed my attention because I saw that they do a lot of project support, and they recognize young leaders. So I decided to contact Mary Jo Rice, (Associate Director of IMMP), and realized that this community has a lot of energy and has the same goals that I wanted to accomplish, which ended up being perfect.
HP: What do you think other people should know about your business?
NL: One thing that a lot of people tell me, when i first tell them my goal for creating Strawngerwrld, which is to reduce the use of plastic straws, they tell me that plastic straws are only a little bit of the plastic that pollutes the oceans. But what I wanted everyone else to know is that the reason why I wanted to work with a nonprofit organization was because I want to be able to donate money to an organization like IMMP so that more than what I am trying to resolve with plastic straws can be helped. This makes what I am doing more useful.
HP: What word of advice would you give to young entrepreneurs that want to grow a business like yours?
NL: Like I said, one of my biggest struggles was trying to make everything 100%, making it perfect. But what I learned was that I just gotta put it out there, and whatever support I get, or anything that people will tell me to add, just to add it and improve it. So basically just to put the work out there, and when you get feedback, take it. And keep moving everyday by doing your research and putting in everything you can.
HP: Anything last idea or thought you would like to add?
NL: Growing up I went to a school, called the Odyssey School, where we are very experienced with nature, we went camping a lot and things like that. And working with charities was a really big thing there. So I think doing that growing up helped me understand the importance of helping others, helping the world, and making it stronger.
About StrawngerWrld:
Strawngerwrld’s passion is to keep our oceans clean and keep our marine life safe and healthy. Strawngerwrld straws are increasing the use of metal straws so plastic ones aren’t as dominant as they are now. Our animals and beautiful beaches are at risk from plastic and Strawngerwrld wants to help reserve them for many generations to experience. www.strawngerwrld.com
