CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – Mahogany and Friends Tiny Investors Club is rewriting the playbook on financial education, by making it fun, accessible and unforgettable.

“Mahogany is a strong representation of a beautiful brown wood that can endure anything and still shines,” said CEO, founder and author Janasha Bradford.

That’s the heart of Mahogany and Friends Tiny Investors Club – a children’s brand teaching kids how to budget, save, and dream big through bold characters and magical adventures.

“Representation is key, right? It tells kids, and it gives a nod to them that if you look like this you can also do this,” Bradford said. “It empowers them, it gives them a sense of confidence.”

It’s financial literacy dressed up in fun, colorful stories kids can relate to.

Each tale is a deposit of knowledge, each character an investment in the future.

“It’s just the foundations that we’re teaching these kids, that then lead them into making confident empowering decisions around money,” said Jasiyah Ruiz, Mahogany & Friends’ Operations Manager and Bradford’s sister.

For Janasha Bradford, the mission started early.

“This work for me is definitely personal, because at the age of 7, my father passed away, leaving my mother with a large insurance payout. I watched her firsthand navigate her finances without the proper financial tools or education and that ultimately led to us losing our family home, and me having to pull out of college,” Bradford said.

Ruiz says the help of a financial education program back then could have made a big difference.

“If Mahogany and Friends was around when we were children, I know that the outcome would have been much different. My mom is a smart woman, and she just needed those tools to be presented to her,” Ruiz said.

And it’s not just children learning from Janasha Bradford’s mission, the community of Charlottesville itself has taken notice in a big way with two awards, Best Published Book Author & Best Financial Advisor, for the second year in a row.

“We have big things on the horizon, and we’re just happy to have started here in a community that’s so dear to my heart,” Bradford said.

Mahogany and Friends are investing in something priceless, success for the next next generation of tiny investors.

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