When life gave lemons to 15-year-old Bloomingdale resident Ava Millan, she decided to start her own business — by making lemonade.
Last year, the teenager started her company, Stay Golden Lemonade, as a regular lemonade stand in her family’s driveway. The business is themed after her golden retriever, Milo. She said she had the idea after her mom, Ashley Millan, showed her a TikTok video of someone else who started a similar business.
“We both thought it would be a great idea for something we can bond over and spend more time together over the summer,” Ava told the Landmark.
Her mom said the stand’s success was almost immediate.
“We started in a tent, and then we had cars pulling over in our driveway, like, ‘What are you guys doing?’” Millan said. “I started reaching out to the local market, just to see if they would be interested in having us there. We really decided to step it up when we were at a market in Lombard, and we had a group of girls come, and they said, ‘We follow you on Instagram. We come to every single event and market that you guys do, and we just love the puppy theme!’”
After realizing they were developing a core group of fans online, Ava saved up the company’s profits and was able to buy a trailer out of which she now sells the dog-themed drinks that earned Stay Golden its recognition. Served in cups displaying a picture of Milo as a puppy, the stand’s drinks include names like “Ocean Retriever,” “Strawberry Fetch” and “Peachy Pup.”
“I didn’t actually think it would turn out this big and we would be this successful, but I was definitely hoping for it,” Ava said.
On top of its blue-and-yellow color scheme and puppy theme, Stay Golden is also known online for its “secret menu” items. While the mobile stand has a more permanent list of drinks that are formally available, Ava and her mom, with help from the rest of the family, will sometimes experiment with new drink combinations that they tease online, so their most dedicated followers have an extra option or two at every market and pop-up.
“Our favorite thing to do is sit down and [figure out] what recipe should we try out today,” Millan said. “It seems like people really like being able to get something a little exclusive, something that’s not on the menu, and it allows us to be creative without having to change the permanent menu every single week.”
Customers who can prove they follow Stay Golden on social media can also earn a $1 discount on their drink of choice, she said.
Due to the company’s canine theme, Ava is partnering with pet shelters to donate a portion of the profits toward pet adoptions. Last year, Stay Golden worked with Anderson Humane in South Elgin, and it’s still looking for a shelter to work with this year.
In 2025, the company became a vendor at the Brookfield farmers market on Saturdays at village hall, 8820 Brookfield Ave.
“It’s fairly large compared to a lot of other markets, and it’s actually a very beautiful area. It gave us those quiet town vibes, and there were so many people there, and also diverse vendors. Sometimes you’ll go to a market, and they’ll have a lot of the same,” Millan said. “We actually lived nearby in Berwyn for a long time, so we had always heard about it locally, so we wanted to check it out and see it for ourselves. We were really sold on it, and we were crossing our fingers. Like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s so many people. We hope they have room for us!’”
She said the lemonade stand sold out within two hours the first time they set up shop in Brookfield, netting the company $600 to $700.
“We had a line around the market, which we didn’t expect. Usually, we sell around $400, $500 in lemonades throughout a whole day,” she said. “People were asking Ava, ‘Where’s your shop? Where’s the store? Where can we get this during the week?’ We just had such a warm welcome.”
Ava said she’s aiming to open a brick-and-mortar shop next summer, likely in Bloomingdale or Lombard and already has plans for how she would decorate it. Her mom said she prefers the traveling, pop-up model, but what Ava says goes.
“She brings it up all the time,” Millan said. “She goes to high school in Lombard, so her idea is, during lunchtime or after school, lots of kids would go there. She plays several sports there, and they all know about her lemonade business, and they’re always telling her, ‘You need to have a shop over here so we can go hang out there and buy your lemonade.’”
In the meantime, she said she and Ava are working to grow Stay Golden’s social media presence even further while polling her followers to determine if a shop would have a steady stream of customers.
“I just think that it would be really cool” to have a brick-and-mortar storefront, Ava said. “Sometimes, setting up, it’s draining a little. It would definitely be easier, and I feel like it would be a little thing I can do after school. Especially in the summer, I can work there every day. I would be able to go there, and it would be a little space place for me.”
