She’s winning by design
DETROIT – Like a scene out of a reality show or a Disney movie, Southgate, Mich., teenager Ashley Qualls’ moment has arrived.
The 17-year-old entrepreneur, designer and self-professed computer geek was in New York recently, pitching her wildly successful Web site, Whateverlife.com, to ad-buying agencies for the country’s biggest companies. And she made an appearance on “The View.”
“This is in some ways her coming-out party,” said Robb Lippitt, Qualls’ 38-year-old business consultant.
On the cusp of national fame, Qualls is planning to expand Whateverlife.com, which gets more visitors than Oprah.com. She wants to start a social network for the millions of teenage girls who flock to her Web site for free designs to decorate their MySpace pages.
Whateverlife.com generated $1 million in revenue last year and is on track to do the same this year. Already, Qualls has turned down outside funding for her site and a verbal offer from someone willing to pay $5 million to buy her company.
“I’m stubborn and I’m independent,” she said from her pink office in the basement of her house. “I like the feeling that it’s my company, and I want to have the say-so in everything.”
Don’t mistake Qualls for another smart but spoiled teenager. She is growing up fast but possesses instincts for life and business that elude many girls her age.
For now, she has turned down the idea of starring in a reality show because she fears the loss of privacy.
Early this month, she won her petition to be declared an adult so she legally could sign business contracts and manage her own money. And she sounds like a 30-year-old when she talks about the struggle to balance work and personal time.
Qualls hired her mother to be her business manager and pays three of her friends, all high school seniors, to work for her after school and on weekends. She said she is more interested in working on her Web site than in learning how to drive. And a year ago, Qualls bought a house in a new subdivision, where she keeps three Himalayan cats and a Rottweiler named Thor.
“She’s really creative,” said best friend Bre Newby, pointing out that Qualls was voted most likely to succeed in the eighth grade.
Despite a 3.9 grade point average, she dropped out of high school after her sophomore year to work full-time on Whateverlife.com, a decision that she said shocked her family, friends and teachers. She now is studying to get her associate’s degree in graphic design and a GED.
With her blonde highlights and vivacious personality, Qualls doesn’t fit the stereotype of a computer geek. But she spent seven hours building a computer that she uses today.
And while other teenagers were playing sports and watching television, Qualls was teaching herself how to write HTML code so she could build Web sites.
“I love it,” she said. “You can create so many things. The possibilities are endless.”
In December 2004, Qualls borrowed $8 from her mother to buy the Whateverlife.com domain name. She started the Web site as her personal graphics portfolio, intending to use it as a way to share her designs for MySpace pages with her friends.
But in the uncontrollable, fast-moving world of cyberspace, others began noticing Qualls’ site even though she never has spent a dime on advertising. At the beginning of last year, Qualls received e-mails from people informing her that Carson Daly had mentioned the site on his radio show.
To expand whateverlife.com’s appeal, Qualls has added an online magazine for teenage girls and young women, a forum for visitors to chat, and a Web site builder with tutorials. In mid-October, she said she hopes to begin selling her designs for cell phone screens.