Isha Patel believes financial education isn’t a luxury — it’s a life skill.

The 16-year-old junior at James B. Conant High School in Hoffman Estates is the author of “Invest-Teen: The Ultimate Teen Investing Guide,” a book born out of her passion for finance and education.

“This all started towards the beginning of last year, when I decided I wanted to learn more about investing,” said Patel, of Elk Grove Village. “I went to the library and I picked out a couple books … I was hoping to learn an exact way I could invest, but I noticed all of these books … had little substance.”

Realizing most beginner finance books oversimplified the subject, Patel returned to the library to find more advanced literature — only to discover many of them overcomplicated financial education.

“I realized there was very little middle ground for investing … for beginners,” Patel said. “I’m passionate about economics and business, so if I’m struggling to understand investment topics through these resources at our local library, I knew for a fact the average high school student would also be struggling.”

Isha Patel, 16, a junior at James B. Conant High School, wrote and self-published the book “Invest-Teen: The Ultimate Teen Investing Guide.”
Courtesy of Isha Patel

From a young age, Patel dreamed of becoming an author, illustrator and an educator. She set out to achieve all three last April, writing and publishing a financial education book designed specifically for teenagers.

“I wanted to make investing more accessible and easy for people to understand, which is why I created ‘Invest-Teen,’” Patel said.

Patel spent the summer of 2024 researching the fundamentals of business and finance. She sent a draft of her book to her English teacher for review before self-publishing through Amazon Direct Publishing.

The easy-to-digest format has text color-coded into three difficulty categories: for beginners; for people with some investing knowledge; and for more in-depth and complex investing advice. People of all ages and understanding of finance can get some benefit from the material, Patel said.

Patel also kept the cost low, $6.99 on Amazon.com, to make the book more accessible and affordable for high schoolers.

“It costs less than the average Starbucks pink drink,” Patel said. “It’s fairly cheap to purchase, and I think buying this book itself is an investment.”

Patel distributes free ebook copies of “Invest-Teen” to those who still can’t afford it, as well as educators looking to share financial education resources with their students.

Patel also serves as CEO of Illuminate Business, a nonprofit dedicated to helping youth explore business and financial careers.

“We provide finance content, we do both personal finance and business-career exploration because we find that a lot of teenagers aren’t in the know of what’s going on economically, and just the finance world in general — so we want to set them up for a successful financial future,” Patel said.

The Illuminate Business team, which Patel began managing as a high school freshman, consists of an executive board based out of the United States, a board of directors and a general team — all of whom are high school students from around the world.

“Having a global team helps us reach a lot more people,” Patel said. “We’ve actually reached 41 countries — which I’m hoping to expand soon.”

Members of the Illuminate Business team span across India, Canada and multiple European, South American and Asian countries.

Patel said the team posts informative business and finance content across social media platforms to reach teens and sends bimonthly newsletters reminding subscribers what they could be doing to improve their personal finance.

“I enjoy how we leveraged their most-used platform and made it something educational, as well as something that can also be fun for them,” Patel said.

Family support has played an essential part in Patel’s journey to becoming a young author and entrepreneur.

With a year left before she graduates high school, Patel hopes to attend the University of Pennsylvania to study business and finance.

She said young adults shouldn’t feel limited by their age.

“They think, ‘I’ll accomplish something bigger when I’m older,’” she said. “I’m glad I’ve been able to find an outlet that allows me to basically spread my passion around the world at an earlier age.”

Proceeds from sales of “Invest-Teen” will go toward Illuminate Business to expand its global reach, she added.