Teen bought stocks aged 14 and now drives a Tesla

• Sophia Castiblanco, 17, made a fortune through investing and content creating
• She began investing three years ago with help from her parents and encourages others to take the leap
• Castiblanco shares her tips for investing and reveals how to manage risk

A high school junior is encouraging others to invest after earning nearly six figures from buying and selling stocks like Amazon and Tesla.

Sophia Castiblanco, now 17, began making her own money through social media at just 14 years old, mostly through producing lifestyle content.

Now she’s eager to share finance tips after her own success at investing her income.

‘I’ve always kind of had a business mindset of wanting to make money, and I’m very okay with taking risk,’ Castiblanco told FOX Business’ ‘The Big Money Show.’

Upon noticing her drive, the teen’s parents provided her with the funds to start investing.

They encouraged her to put money into Vanguard and Berkshire Hathaway stocks to begin building long-term wealth.

The teen also opted to purchase stock in a few of her favorite companies: Tesla, Apple and Amazon.

Castiblanco eventually saw nearly six figures in returns, enough to buy her own Tesla.

And she believes other teens can do it too. When it comes to the right age to invest, Castiblanco asserts ‘there’s no minimum age to start’.

‘I think it’s important to realize that even if you just invest like $20 a month, or I mean a super small amount, you can still grow that over time,’ she said.

However, Castiblanco advises teens to open custodial accounts under a parent’s name, and for good reason: trading platforms like Robinhood require users to be at least 18 years of age.

She touts the platform as an option for young investors in one of her TikTok videos.

‘Don’t worry, you don’t need to be an expert,’ she says in the clip, which was posted earlier this year and has racked up nearly half a million views.

In the video, she urges her peers to ‘keep learning and stay updated,’ holding up a copy of Robert Kiyosaki’s ‘Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing’.

‘Just start small and do your research and remember that if I can do it, so can you,’ she says.

While today, the homeschooled teen makes most of her income through brand deals on TikTok and ad revenue on YouTube, where she boasts 390,000 followers and 36,000 subscribers, respectively.

Speaking to FOX Business, the teen suggested investing in index funds, which she considers her ‘biggest’ approach to managing risk.

‘That kind of helps to diversify the risk of investing more than kind of if I were to just invest in individual stocks,’ she said.

Castiblanco also encouraged prospective investors to ‘be okay with stocks losing value’. 

‘I think that it takes patience and perseverance to just know that you are taking a risk, but that it’s worth it,’ she said.

Speaking to USA TODAY, Castiblanco said she continues to focus on content creation but also aims to dip into real estate and start her own business.

As for the newfound publicity surrounding her success, the 17-year-old said it has been ‘a positive experience’.

There are drawbacks, of course, including mass hate. One of Castiblanco’s most viewed videos is captioned ‘reacting to my hate comments about having a Tesla at 17’.

In that clip, Castiblanco reads off remarks from other netizens that get increasingly aggressive.

In response to a comment urging her to ‘shut the f*** up and stop using daddy’s money to buy stuff,’ the teen proclaims to have four streams of income earning her close to $100,000. 

‘Most of these comments are coming from fully grown adults,’ she says.

‘Like you’re telling me that you don’t have anything better to do with your time than hate on a 17-year-old who bought her own car?’ 

Though her online notoriety has raised some safety concerns, the teen has expressed her gratitude for the ‘supportive community’ she has built online.

This includes the thousands of visitors who continuously flock to her TikTok page to watch the ‘haul’ videos filmed in her car and childhood bedroom.

‘I’ve enjoyed being able to inspire other teens to invest and pursue their dreams,’ Castiblanco said.