The struggles of one person can inspire another to create a solution. When an 8-year-old girl Lily Born noticed her grandfather, who has Parkinson’s disease, is having trouble drinking from regular cups without spilling his beverages, a girl promised herself to make his life easier. At that moment Lily has awaken her inner entrepreneur, and created an innovation which now helps hundreds of people suffering from Parkinson’s. So let me introduce you her innovation — a three-legged, spill-proof cup which is now called the Kangaroo Cup!
The story of this innovation has started in 2012 and both Lily and Kangaroo Cup have grown since that time. The process of making a prototype of this cup was quite fun and does not seem like a difficult task at all — that is the main point of childish innovations, right? Lily designed these cups using moldable plastic at home and then clay at a pottery studio. In this way she could hand those fresh-made cups over to her grandpa and then do some changes right after.
The point of this invention is three legs of moldable plastic that make it harder to knock over than a typical cup. Not only was the cup more stable, but it stacked easily, needed no coaster and didn’t splash when carried around. Even more, she found out that her dad, Joe Born, was having a similar problem by trying not to spill his coffee on his laptop. So Lily made him another version of a cup, this time made from ceramics. Though her family was enjoying the cups, Lily didn’t see them as more than gifts and didn’t place much value on them. Thanks to her dad who encouraged and supported his little girl to set a bigger goal and start selling these Kangaroo Cups: “One day I asked my dad, ‘What am I good at?’ He asked me if I wanted to take the cups into production. I think he had an idea it would make me see being an inventor was a real thing and something to be proud of.”
Her Father Joe was absolutely sure about his idea to put these cups into production: “I felt like if we put this up for sale, and people bought them, that would really create evidence and show that it was something serious and not just a little, cutesy thing, but a real talent she had,” Joe said. After making this decision, they ended up on an adventure that brought them to JingDeZhen, China, where they were able to refine the models, find a manufacturer, and prepare for a production run. The original ceramic cup was funded on Kickstarter in 2012, raising over $6,000 and allowing Lily’s dream to become reality. Even though they succeeded, the design of these cups could be improved: it often broke, as it was ceramic, and it didn’t stack easily. So this challenge needed to be overcome: in 2014, when Lily just turned 11, she launched a new and improved stackable, unbreakable Kangaroo Cup, made of BPA-free plastic instead of ceramic. It’s not just for those with Parkinson’s-related tremors, but for anyone spill-prone. Right now these cups are available to purchase and part of the profits from Kangaroo Cups is used to support STEM education for young girls and donate to non-profit organizations that help adults and kids with mobility issues.
And, of course, Lily has a great advice for all young innovators of the world: Don’t freak out if you screw up or fail, because you’ll fail a lot before you get it right,” she says. “Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help. No matter how good your idea is, there are lots of things that grownups will have to help you with. Most of the time they are excited to help you, unless it’s something really expensive!”
