Natalie Baker

Peckham-born Omari McQueen was eight years old when he started his own business, Dipalicious, which sells vegan dips and snacks. Now aged 11, he’s sold his food at a Boxpark pop-up, has a vegan cooking channel on YouTube, Omari Goes Wild, and teaches cookery classes for kids at his south London home. I had my own pop-up restaurant at Boxpark Croydon last year and became the world’s youngest restaurateur. I messaged [CEO of Boxpark] Roger [Wade] on LinkedIn and said that when I was older I wanted a restaurant there. He said: ‘Why wait until you’re older?’  I’ve got dyslexia so I find it difficult to read food labels. Sometimes I smell the ingredients before I know what they are. When I was learning to read, I used cookbooks to help me remember words.  I heard about veganism in a Peta video. I wanted to help animals and bring people together through food. I went vegan and never looked back.  When I first went vegan it wasn’t difficult because I was cooking my own meals. My mum thought vegan food was expensive, but I showed her that it doesn’t have to be. We go to Brixton market for our vegetables – all the shopkeepers know me there. The worst thing about having my own business is that I’m small. When I was at Boxpark, I had to use a chair to stand on!   I was beaten up at school by a boy in year 8. He asked me why I thought I was so special. I thought: ‘I’m not that special.’ I didn’t understand why he was beating me up. I started to feel sorry for him because stuff might be go