About Maya

I am Maya Shea Penn. I’m a 13 year old entrepreneur, philanthropist, designer, artist, animator (I make animated short films), illustrator, and writer. I am the CEO of Maya's Ideas, a company I started in 2008 when I was just 8 years old. I create handmade artisan crafted one-of-a-kind eco-friendly accessories and clothing. I have been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, Ebony, Redbook, FOX 5 Atlanta, Black Enterprise, Etsy.com,The NRDC, The Michael Baisden Show, and many other publications. My designs are sold all over the world and I have customers in Denmark, Italy, Australia and more. I love to use my creativity to give back to the community, and the environment and it's creatures. 10-20% of my profits go to causes that I am passionate about like: Hosea Feed The Hungry, Atlanta Community Food Bank, The Ian Somerhalder Foundation ( I’m a member of their kids division and I write articles and add content/videos to their website.). I also write a column called Ask The Expert as a contributing writer for Livethrive.org.  I was honored as an entrepreneur at the 2012 SCLC Women's 33rd Annual Drum Major for Justice Awards in the Youth Category. I was honored along with actor and Humanitarian Sean Penn, Actor Samuel L. Jackson and his wife Latanya Richardson, CNN News Anchor Don Lemon,Rev. Al Sharpton, Justice Robert Benham and Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson. I was panelist/speaker at the economic empowerment summit at Agnes Scott College that was being presented by the National Center for Civil and Human Rights for teen age girls. I also have a non-profit organization called Maya's Ideas 4 The Planet.