Britney Soto

Britney Soto is an 8-year old at Oakridge Elementary School. She knows how to sew, tie-dye, and design on the computer. But she never thought she could use them to make money, until now.

When the pandemic hit, Soto combined all of her talents and love for crafting and started making and selling masks.

“I make all types of masks, my favorite ones are the colorful ones,” she said.

Soto began selling face masks during the summer. With the help of her parents, she set up a stand in front of her house and began selling her hand-made masks for two dollars each.

“I’m saving my money in my piggy-bank to help my mom pay for my college one day,” said Soto.

She sells two kinds of masks: disposable and fabric. Her dream is to go to college for fashion design.

“I want to have my own fashion business someday,” she said.

Over the summer, Soto made a lot of masks. However, with school and homework, she can only produce about two a day now.

To create her disposable masks, she starts by finding images, logos, or quotes she likes on the internet. Then she prints them out and using an iron she fixes the design onto the disposable mask.

“At first my mom used to help me,” said Soto, “but now she trusts me and I do it alone.”

Currently, she makes the fabric masks from material that she tie-dyes. For them, she uses string to wrap white fabric, creating designs which she soaks for two hours. When they are dry, she sews the fabric together using a sewing machine. This way she can make masks in different sizes from a small, medium, large, to extra large.

“I feel like I’m helping people be safe,’’ said Soto, “the more people that wear their mask, the sooner life can go back to normal.”

Over the weekend, Soto sets up her lemonade-type stand that her mother made for her out of plywood. She sells her masks to residents of the Crystal Lake Apartments in Hollywood. So far, including sales from this past summer, she’s made almost $2,000.

“It’s hard work, but it pays off,” she said.