Las Vegas community supports teenage entrepreneur after car accident

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – 16-year-old Kumei Norwood is the owner of Tofu Teas in downtown Las Vegas and sells t-shirts for social causes.

“A lot of my designs are now based on social issues, what’s going on in the world,” Kumei said. “The environment and fair inequality at its worst, be it race, gender, sexuality, everything.”

Kumei founded her brand when she was only 8 years old.

“At first I was just doing pop-ups at markets and whatever the community was doing out here, and then I ended up being offered a space in Fergusons and I opened my first store. It was about 100 square feet,” she said. “And from then on, every year I moved to a bigger space.”

But recently the young entrepreneur encountered an obstacle on her path to success.

“The day before Halloween I was taking Kumei to school and a driver destroyed a stop sign, T-boned us and destroyed the entire car,” said Kumei’s father, Devon Norwood. “And it’s just been hard ever since.”

The family of five had no transportation to work, school or the many community events that Tofu Tees is involved with.

Luckily, the community was there to help and thousands of dollars in donations poured in.

“I feel really great that I have the support and everything, and my whole family has the support of the people that helped me become what I am today,” Kumei said.

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