CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two lifelong friends that were bored back in March have used their time wisely, and it's really starting to pay off.
Mae Strauss and Ella Culpepper have been best friends forever. They even went to pre-school together.
In March the 17-year-old’s decided to work together, accidentally starting a custom cookie business.
"When quarantine started and we were home all the time I was like I can decorate cookies," Culpepper remembers. "I would drop them off for friends and I had a family friend who said if I started selling them she’d buy them."
They call themselves the baker and the scribe. Culpepper bakes and Strauss is the scribe, designing cards for each order and writing on the cookies.
"I don’t think this is an opportunity I would have taken advantage of had I not had the time," Culpepper said.
The girls admit they’re learning as they go, including refining their recipe.
"At first my cookies weren’t fantastic but it was all the time when i was sitting at home I got good enough to do something with it," Culpepper said.
But they seem to have the money part figured out.
"We are definitely saving it to go towards college and back into the business," Strauss said.
A business they didn’t plan to start but now seems like a pretty sweet deal.
"It's been a really cool experience that we definitely wouldn’t have gotten without this free time in lockdown," Strauss said,
The girls also said they know this is a tough time for so many, so for the month of October they donated a portion of their profits to the Ronald McDonald House.