The 17-year-old teenager became a multi-millionaire by the age of 11 after founding her own company at the age of four

Mikaila Ulmer got a dingy cookbook from her great-grandmother when she was just four years old and started to create her own lemonade. When she was 11, Whole Foods paid $11million (£9million) to stock her drink

A young girl has shared how she made millions every year from a lemonade business she started when she was four years old.

Mikaila Ulmer started creating her drinks after she received an old cookbook from her great-grandmother.

The 17-year-old from Texas, USA, had made $11 million before her 12th birthday – and the company has continued to grow ever since.

Finding a recipe for flaxseed soda from the 1940s, she went to work and added a touch of honey, which proved crucial as the drink took off.

She secured a mega deal from Whole Foods to sell her Me & the Bees Lemonade in 2016, and before she turned 18 her product was stocked in 1,500 stores across America.

The young entrepreneur hasn’t stopped drinking and has written her own line of lip balms and book – all while she was in school.

She says that for every drink sold, 10 percent of her profits go to bee rescue foundations.

Mikaila earned a major investment to take the company to the next level after appearing on the television show Shark Tank, America’s equivalent of Dragon’s Den.

On her website, she says: “I decided to give her beloved lemonade a new twist by adding honey from bees instead of just sugar.

“That’s how Be Sweet Lemonade was born!

“However, we had to change the name due to a copyright issue, so we decided to call it Me & the Bees Lemonade because we give a percentage of sales to help save the bees.

“We’re now celebrating more than 10 years of ‘Buzzness!'”

The girl started bottling it when a local pizza shop asked if they could stock it for their customers.

Last year she gave some vital advice to anyone looking to get their business off the ground.

“I don’t think there’s a limit or specific guidelines to who can become an entrepreneur who can start a business,” Mikaila told Marketplace.

“The perception is that there’s a certain race or gender or age that you have to be if you want to make it big or be successful or grow your business.”

She continued, “If you don’t have passion for your idea, it will be difficult to engage in the work that is required to build a business. And believe me, there is a lot of work ahead of you when you start a business.”