Sixteen-year-old Paris Marchant’s online business boosted by Instagram reports from Kylie and Kris Jenner
A TEENAGE dropout’s business is riding high after receiving the best endorsement she could ever have hoped for.
INSTAGRAM reposts from reality TV stars Kylie and Kris Jenner have propelled a 16-year-old Aussie entrepreneur into new heights.
Paris Marchant grew up in the small town of Dungog in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney.
Suffering from clinical depression, she struggled at school and eventually dropped out to work fulltime at McDonalds.
In an amazing success story, Marchant and her boyfriend, fellow high school dropout Lawrence Lees, 20, are now the owners of an online fashion store Generation Outcast Clothing, which is based in nearby Belmont.
With almost 140,000 followers on Instagram and a reported ‘today turnover’, Marchant shared a news article about her success on Instagram and included a shout-out to teenage reality TV personality, socialite and model Kylie Jenner.
“If this never gets seen by @kyliejenner then that is okay because I know some what, it will inspire and help someone that reads it,” Marchant wrote on Instagram.
“For years and years I suffered with clinical depression. Dropping out of school in year 9 and being in and out of hospital for over 10 months. The demons were real and at the time I really did not want to be alive,” she wrote.
“Since starting @__outcastclothing 8 months ago, I am a changed person. I smile, I love life. I want YOU to know you are more then what your depression tells you.”
Kylie Jenner did, however, see the post and reposted Marchant’s story, adding: “This is so inspiring and you are so amazing.”
Her post got more than 230,000 likes on Instagram within four hours. Her mum, Kris Jenner also reposted the story and got more than 8,000 Instagram likes in ten minutes.
“Thank you to @kyliejenner for sharing our founder @pazjane story — hopefully we can brighten people’s life’s!” Outcast Clothing said on its Instagram page.
But the response caught the company, which now has 157,000 followers, by surprise and caused the site to slow down dramatically for a while.
Marchant delighted at the response then posted the following:
“Success does not happen over night, people may think it does. That app or book that hits off is never an overnight success, there was a lot of hard work and long years behind it. Outcast will be one year old in December and it is crazy how much can change in a year, I am a different person. I will never truly be satisfied, I will always want more ‘stay hungry, stay foolish’ but I am so happy at how far we have come in such a short period of time, and we will continue to build Outcast together and many other businesses. Some will fail, some will succeed, but I won’t ever give up on creating things that change people’s life’s!”
Marchant and Lees, who are now being helped by Jack Delosa’s The Entourage, based in Ultimo, Sydney, reportedly said they are now making a monthly profit of about $35,000 after just eight months of operation.
How to solve Australia’s housing crisis
A leading business group says one thing needs to happen to solve Australia’s housing hell and you only have to look at one of our nearest neighbours for inspiration.
Grim news for Aussies who want cash
It is getting harder and harder to use cash in Australia, as the latest data paints a tough picture for cash users and the older population.
Why Aussies are feeling inflation shock
Australia’s central bank has pointed to a theory as to why our high inflation feels like it is dragging on, and on, and on and on.