How This 12-Year-Old Made $1.6 Million Selling NFT Art

Nyla Hayes, a 12-year-old artist, might just be one of the youngest millionaires out there. At such a young age, she’s made a name for herself from selling nearly $4 million in NFTs and being hailed as TIME magazine’s first Artist-in-Resident. Hayes’ “Long Neckie Ladies” NFT collection is estimated to be worth $3.4 million in cryptocurrencies, with over $1.6 million in sales.

The Inspiration Behind “Long Neckie Ladies”

Hayes has been drawing since she was four years old, as stated on her website. Growing up, she loved the children’s show Dino Dan, which sparked her interest in these ancient creatures. The gentle Brontosaurus, particularly, inspired the elongated neck of each figure in her artwork. To date, she has created thousands of computer-generated unique ladies.

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How Hayes got into NFTs

If you still haven’t heard about Non-fungible Tokens, they’re anything digital that can be sold online, like drawings and music. Hayes was introduced to NFTs by her uncle, and she learned how to make and sell them by watching YouTube tutorials. Moreover, her artwork has established her as a young trailblazer and entrepreneur.

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Banking on Digital Art

People started buying Hayes’ “Long Neckie Ladies” NFTs soon after she released them. “I started drawing at 4. When I was 9, my parents got me a smartphone to make digital art. I made drawings of people with long necks, which I call Long Neckies,” she said on TIME Kids. Since March, she has sold over 960 ETH, which is equivalent to $3.4 million in digital currency.

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Given her increasing popularity and accomplishments, Hayes is also now a TIME Magazine artist-in-residence. The TIMEPieces program provides a platform for NFT artists to master the tools and gain access to the resources they need to advance their careers in the NFT art scene. Recently, she had the opportunity to share a collection with a community of collectors as part of the program.

Art Macky Arquilla

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