021FOCUS | BY Eleanor Douglas-Meyers
At 19, most people are only beginning to figure out what they want to do with their lives. Thaakirah is doing that too, except she is figuring it out while running a business.
The young entrepreneur behind Serenity Beauty Studio has found herself sitting in meetings, managing people, dealing with suppliers, making business decisions and solving problems she admits she never imagined she would be dealing with at her age.
There are still moments when she thinks: “I am only 19. Am I really supposed to know how to deal with all of this?”
The answer she has discovered is no. She does not have to know everything.
She just has to be willing to learn.
As 041Online celebrates Women’s Month, we spoke to Thaakirah about starting a business as a teenager, the pressure young women face to have their futures figured out and the mother who gave her an opportunity before she necessarily felt ready for it.
Starting before you feel ready
There is a particular pressure that comes with being the youngest person in the room.
Thaakirah knows it well.
“I often find myself in rooms where I am the youngest person there, and that can be intimidating,” she says.
“But I’ve learnt that you don’t always have to be the most experienced person in the room to deserve your place in it.”
Before Serenity, she admits there were years when she felt lost and unsure about what path she should follow or whether she was capable of standing on her own.
Starting a business has not magically removed that uncertainty. Instead, it has taught her how to move forward despite it.
“Being an entrepreneur at 19 has made me much more comfortable with not knowing,” she says.
Every day can bring a problem she has never encountered before or a decision she has never had to make.
“I’ve learnt to ask questions, listen, make mistakes, adapt and keep going.”
It has also changed the way she thinks about the pressure placed on young women to know exactly where their lives are heading.
“We put too much pressure on young women to have their lives perfectly mapped out,” she says.
Her new philosophy?
“Your timeline is not a deadline.”
The reality of being a teenage entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship can look glamorous from the outside.
Thaakirah knows that social media often shows the finished product: the beautiful space, the branding, the launch and the exciting milestones.
It does not necessarily show what happens afterwards.
“When you are building a business, every problem eventually finds its way back to you,” she says.
There are phone calls, spreadsheets, unexpected expenses, difficult conversations and decisions that still need to be made when you are tired.
One of her biggest surprises has been discovering just how much running a business involves managing people, personalities and expectations.
And then there is the fact that the business does not simply disappear from her mind at closing time.
“The biggest reality check has been realising that when you are an entrepreneur, there isn’t really an ‘off’ switch.”
Her biggest lesson so far is one that applies whether you start a business at 19 or 49.
“Passion gets you started, but discipline is what keeps you going.”
The woman who gave her the opportunity
Thaakirah has not built Serenity alone.
At the centre of her story is her mother, the woman who helped turn an interest in beauty into a real business opportunity.
As a little girl, Thaakirah remembers experimenting with her mother’s moisturiser, watching beauty videos, stealing her makeup and running around in her heels.
As she got older, those interests became more serious. There were ideas about aesthetics, lashes and other areas of the beauty industry before her mother encouraged her to think bigger.
Eventually, Serenity Beauty Studio began taking shape.
But perhaps more important than helping create the business was her mother’s willingness to trust her daughter with it.
“At 19, I never imagined that I would be sitting in meetings, making business decisions, managing people, dealing with suppliers, handling problems and being expected to have answers.”
Her mother never told her she needed to wait until she was older or more experienced.
Instead, Thaakirah says, she gave her the opportunity to learn by doing.
“She put me in the deep end, but she didn’t leave me there. She gave me the space to learn how to swim while knowing that I could always reach for her when I needed to.”
That support has changed the way Thaakirah views mistakes too.
“My mom trusted me in the deep end, and she is still proud of me. So, in my mind, I didn’t fail. I grew.”
Mother, daughter and now business partners
Building Serenity has also changed their relationship.
Thaakirah’s mother brings years of life and business experience. Thaakirah brings an understanding of her generation, trends, social media and the way young women interact with brands.
The result is a business shaped by both perspectives.
“When we first started, I was her daughter with an idea. Now, I’m also someone she can sit across a table from and have a serious business conversation with.”
They do not always agree, and Thaakirah does not pretend they do.
Instead, they have learnt that disagreement does not have to become conflict and that sometimes the business needs to stay at the door so they can simply be mother and daughter again.
For Thaakirah, one of the most special parts of the experience has been getting to see her mother not only as a parent, but as a businesswoman, leader and woman with dreams of her own.
At the same time, she believes her mother is getting to watch her grow from a daughter into the young woman she always believed she could become.
Taking beauty beyond appearances
While Serenity is a beauty studio, Thaakirah does not see beauty as simply being about how someone looks.
She wants women to walk into the space and, for a little while, put down everything else they are carrying.
“Women are constantly giving pieces of themselves to everyone around them,” she says.
“We are daughters, mothers, sisters, partners, friends, employees, businesswomen and so many other things.”
For her, self-care is not necessarily about looking good for somebody else.
Sometimes it is about stopping long enough to recognise yourself again.
“I believe self-care is a reminder that you are a person too, and that you deserve to be cared for just as much as the people you spend your life caring for.”
If a client leaves Serenity feeling beautiful, Thaakirah is happy.
But if she leaves feeling lighter, more confident, relaxed and connected to herself, she believes the business has achieved something more meaningful.
From receiving an opportunity to creating them
Thaakirah is only at the beginning of her own entrepreneurial journey, but she already knows what she would like success to look like.
Yes, she wants Serenity to be profitable and sustainable.
But she also wants it to eventually create careers, teach skills and provide opportunities for other young women.
She knows firsthand what it feels like for someone to give you an opportunity before you are convinced you are ready for it.
One day, she hopes to do the same.
“I would love to be able to give someone else that same feeling one day, to look at a young woman and say, ‘I believe you can do this,’ and give her the space to prove it to herself.”
It is also where her story connects particularly strongly with Women’s Month.
Thaakirah is conscious that generations of women before hers fought for opportunities young South African women can access today.
For her, honouring that legacy means being willing to use those opportunities, even when doing so is intimidating.
‘Take yourself seriously’
For another teenager or young woman sitting with a business idea but thinking she is too young, too inexperienced or simply not ready, Thaakirah has some advice.
“Take yourself seriously before you expect anyone else to.”
Being inexperienced, she says, is not the same as being incapable.
“You can be inexperienced and still be incredibly capable. Experience is something you gain by doing. You don’t become ready and then start. Sometimes you start, and that’s how you become ready.”
At 19, Thaakirah certainly does not claim to have everything figured out.
In many ways, that is the point.
She is learning, making decisions, occasionally getting things wrong and discovering what she is capable of along the way.
Her Women’s Month message to other young women is fittingly similar.
“Take the opportunity. Ask the question. Start the business. Apply for the position. Walk into the room even if you’re nervous.”
Because sometimes, she says, “you have to become brave before you feel brave.”
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