Delhi schoolgirl's guide to financial management through fairy tales

New Delhi: A teenager has come out with an impressive guide to financial management through storytelling using the fairytales of Disney princesses.

In her book, 'Magic and Money - Financial Literacy Though Fairy Tales', Mannat Bhutani, a class XII student of Modern School, Barakhamba in Delhi, has written six stories on business and investment opportunities.

She has used the famous characters of fairy tales for children to make her point.

Her first story tells us how Ariel, the famous mermaid and Disney princess, opens a restaurant deep under the sea to fulfil her dreams and passion after a prince broke her heart by marrying someone else.

Instead of giving up, she starts her own business venture, securing a loan and then repaying it after making good profits from it. She even donated generously to an organisation that worked for the preservation of life in deep waters.

In her second story, Mannat uses another famous Disney character, Belle, to tell us how financial independence can be achieved even when your chips are down.

Belle opens a successful teaching centre to create a new learning environment that is different from the traditional one. She taught her students the concepts of savings, loans, budgeting and interest rates in an engaging manner. She also used catchy musical tunes to teach important financial concepts.

Mannat then narrates the story of Mulan, the legendary Chinese warrior, in her third chapter.

She explains how Mulan utilises her financial resources to support businesses and initiatives with positive social and environmental impacts. To cope up with advanced technological challenges and increase her reach, Mulan devises an app to help those looking for investment. This is sheer creativity by Mannat to tell her readers how technology can be used to leverage business opportunities.

She also uses the characters of three other Disney princesses Cinderella, Snow White and Rapunzel to show how financial independence can be achieved.

While Cinderella ensures employment for a large number of people by manufacturing shoes, she also uses the e-commerce model to increase her sales which eventually boosts her confidence.

Similarly, Snow White opened a school for magic, and named it Fantasyland. Mannat describes how Snow White had to face initial resistance as many people had wrong perception of magic but perseverance helped her to overcome all the hurdles that tried to come in the way of her passion.

People were apprehensive as black magic was often used by the evil people to harm others. Snow White successfully overcame that hiccup by spreading awareness about the good side of the magic tricks.

In her last story, Mannat tells her readers how she started her own hair extension and wigs business and how she faced problems in terms of capital. Rapunzel diluted 15% of her company's share to get investment and how she is used social media - YouTube and Instagram - to reach a wider audience and became a successful entrepreneur.

About the author

Seventeen-year-old Mannat Bhutani is a rising senior at Modern School who is driven by her passion for economics. Her goal is to bridge the financial literacy gap in India, which inspired her to write a book. Mannat has been a voracious reader since childhood and has always aspired to contribute to the world of stories. Her aim is to engage young minds and make concepts like budgeting, saving, and entrepreneurship easy to understand and fascinating, creating an exciting journey for young and avid readers.