Gehna Manglani, a 12th grade student of Mallya Aditi International School confesses that the idea of starting Edible, came up when she returned from school and scouted around the house for something to munch on.

“Most of the times, I wasn’t eating healthy. I was putting on weight. I wanted something that would fill me up and not cause damage while sitting to write an essay after school. This idea came as a rescue not only for me, but for many of my friends who were going through the same problem,” reveals Gehna.

She spent many days brainstorming with her parents before she set up the health brand. Although, she took little help from her parents, she reveals, “My parents gave me the initial capital to kickstart, but I paid them back after a month. My mother Shalini Manglani is a nutritionist so she helped me with inputs. I was dabbling between doing something related with fashion or health, but was finally drawn more towards food. My initial plan was to make something that would appeal to my friends and it came as a shock to me when my friend’s mums also loved my creations and asked me to put together stuff that they wanted post-gym like workout snacks, or post-work or in between meal snacks that were healthy.”

Gehna acknowledges that it wasn’t all hunky dory. “Striking a balance was a challenge and my studies took a toll initially, but soon everything got streamlined and now my cooks have been taught how to make these at home. We love a bar of chocolate so why not have the same impact with a similar bar that’s healthy. I would spend time only on Sundays and make something that would last a week,” adds the little cook.

When she’s not whipping up these health-on-the-go bites or finishing assignments for school, Gehna states, “I’m very passionate about scuba diving and I’m a certified scuba diver. I also like fashion designing and hope to combine both fashion and nutrition after school.”

Every week, she receives 10-15 orders, over and above the repeat customers. Working out the pricing based on the ingredients, electricity, labour and her profit margin, her products are now priced between Rs 100 (for the bars) and Rs 2,400 (720 gm quinoa and pumpkin seed granola).

Manglani, who bought a packaging machine last month, is now working on co-ordinating with her school to sell the products on-campus. She makes a profit of about Rs 75,000 every month, and while she donated 50 per cent of her earnings to Akshaya Patra the first month, she’s still figuring out what to do with the rest. “I don’t need pocket money from my parents anymore,” she smiles.