HIGHLAND PARK, IL — A business created by 10-year-old twin sisters from Highland Park has made thousands of dollars since July making and selling custom mask holders. The Braeside Elementary School fifth graders pledged to donate a third of the price of each mask holder their business — Twin Beads by Tyler & Brie — sells during the month of September to a North Shore charity.
Tyler and Brielle Stolberg are no strangers to crafting or beading, they told Patch. Back in fourth grade, they created customized bracelets for friends and loved seeing their reactions.
“It was so easy, beading, but yet it came out with a really cool design. And it was just fun to wear and we loved seeing our friends reactions when we gave it to them,” Tyler said.
“Me and Tyler would come up with designs that kind of suit their personality,” Brie said.
When the coronavirus pandemic upended daily life, the twins adapted to the new reality of social distancing and face covering.
“We can’t hug anyone or touch anyone at all, and it’s really hard just seeing your loved ones and staying 6 feet,” Brie said. “It’s just so hard to not want to just run up and hug them and kiss them.”
“We needed to come up with a whole entire new routine,” Tyler said. “And it was really hard to switch from our old routine to our new routine, because there were so many changes.”
As masks became a mandatory accessory, the Stolberg twins discovered designs for beaded mask holders that clip onto a face mask’s ear loops and began to make their own.
At a socially distanced 4th of July event with friends and family, the girls’ discovered a demand for their creations.
“People saw our mask holder and they asked us, ‘Wait, where did you get those?’ and we said, ‘We beaded them ourselves,'” Tyler said. “And then they’re like, ‘Oh my God, I want one.’ So that’s where we really started.”
In addition to selling the $15 mask holders to friends and family members, the Twin Beads founders have shipped them to California, Florida, New York and Wisconsin. And after an initial consignment of a dozen of the twins’ canasta-themed mask holders sold out from Ross Cosmetics & Boutique, the store at 625 Central Ave. in Highland Park ordered more. In total, the twins had sold more than 300 of the mask holders as of the end of August.
During the month of September, Twin Beads will donate $5 from each purchase to The Chicago Lighthouse North. The social service organization, which opened a North Shore location at 222 Waukegan Road in Glenview in 2012, serves communities of the blind, visually impaired, disabled and veterans with education, rehabilitation, jobs, technology and other programs.
The twins said they selected the nonprofit because their mother and grandmother are on the its advisory board and they have experience at its fundraisers.
“Every year we help with an event that me and Tyler really love,” Brie said. “We pass out tickets for raffles and we convince people to donate. It’s very fun.”
The Stolbergs started the school year last week in North Shore District 112, but they will not be selling any mask holders on the playground — the twins will be doing fully remote learning through the fall. Still, Twin Beads offers to deliver custom mask holders to the area.
“It’s definitely going to be a challenge,” Brie said. “But I know we can get through it if we just think on the positive side.”
This article originally appeared on the Highland Park Patch