13-Year-Old Sells NFT Art Up To P300k Each, Becomes Multimillionaire In A Year

Is your child an artist in the making?

Nyla Hayes, a 13-year-old artist, has been earning millions of dollars for selling her digital portraits as NFTs, according to TODAY.

If you’ve heard of NFTs or non-fungible tokens, these are one-of-a-kind digital assets like images, songs, or videos that are being sold online through cryptocurrency or digital tokens. We’ve previously wrote an explainer of NFTs here. 

Her drawings depict iconic women like Oprah, Michelle Obama, and Serena Williams, with her signature: she draws them with elongated necks. She calls them, “Long Neckies.”

 

 

“Long Neckie Ladies is a fine art, hand drawn, computer generated collectible of 3,333 diverse and elegant females,” Nyla posted in her OpenSea page.

When she was younger, Hayes was fascinated with the Brontosaurus dinosaur. And that’s what made her art standout, and now being sold for millions.

"At first I just wanted to put two things that I love together, and that was a Brontosaurus and women," she said. "I wanted to show how beautiful and strong women were, and I thought of the brontosaurus as that as well."

In March, Hayes sold her “Long Neckie Lady” portrait for $6,621.70 or Php 343,401.36 on Instagram. And the month before that, she sold another drawing for $3,920.05 or Php 203,293.79.

At 4, Hayes has been showing interest in drawing. And when she turned 9, her parents bought her a smartphone that she can use to draw digital art. Her mom and her learned about NFTs through watching YouTube videos.

Hayes has been recognized by TIME Magazine as its first TIMEpiece artist in residence.

How to promote your child's interest in digital art

1. Enroll them in classes

There are available free classes online that you might want to enroll your child in if you want them to learn digital art. 

Bahay Turo offers summer courses on digital art, among others. You may book your first Bahay Turo session for free at www.bahayturo.com. 

2. Expose them to art regularly.

You can bring your child to places where they can draw inspiration from, such as nature, art gallery, or crafts workshop. Learn more tips from this mom.

3. Let your child choose what to draw.

From Nyla's experience, what made her art unique from everyone else's is the way she incorporate her favorite dinosaur brontosaurus in her drawings. 

Learn how to unlock your child’s talent here.