Bridey Drake started her first business at 12. At 25, she owns a multi-million dollar empire

Exclusive: At age 12, Bridey Drake didn’t concern herself with the regular interests of a young Aussie growing up on the Central Coast. Instead she was building her first business idea.

She recalls her first entrepreneurial attempts as somewhat “childish” – as you would reasonably expect from any 12-year-old businesswoman – but fast-forward to today, and she’s making millions.

Drake is best known for her social media presence, but she’s much more than your regular influencer.

She tells nine.com.au that from the ages of 12 to 18, she couldn’t stop coming up, and attempting to execute, new business ideas. But nothing took off.

While there were moments she recalled giving up, at 19 she decided to give it one last shot, this time launching a pyjama business.

Drake took the company to two local markets, but when it came time to register for a third, she didn’t have the funds to cover the expenses.

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“I felt really, really embarrassed that I had brought all these people along for my journey and nothing was working out,” she says.

“So I remember after the markets, I shoved all the pyjamas under my bed, and I was like, ‘That’s it. I’m done. I’m over business. Business sucks. I’ve been trying to do this for almost 10 years and not one thing is working. I’m in debt. I’m going. I’m done’.”

But while Drake’s pyjama business seemed to be failing, there was a new phenomenon taking over the screens of young Aussies.

Following its international rollout in 2017, TikTok started to become a cultural phenomenon in 2019. So, Drake decided to post to the platform to promote her brand. It went viral, and her pyjamas sold-out overnight.

Today that brand is known as Night Sweet Thing, and Drake explains it’s now “a multimillion-dollar company”.

And while that TikTok launched her business, it also launched a second career for Drake as a content creator – one of Australia’s favourite content creators, to be exact.

While also managing her flourishing business, Drake began posting videos documenting her personal life and she instantly “fell in love with it”.

She’s since amassed more than 11 million followers across her platforms, and in 2024, she took home Creator of the Year, a public-voted title at the annual TikTok awards.

But social media wasn’t an overnight success for Drake; in fact, she remembers the exact moment she realised it was all about to change when she was sitting at around 45,000 followers.

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“I was walking down the street, and I remember this girl came up to me and was like, ‘Bridey!’ And I was like, ‘Hey! Sorry, where do I know you?’ And she’s like, ‘I follow you!’” Drake recalls.

“And that was the moment I was like, ‘What the heck? My little world will never be the same again. People were watching me!’ And so from that moment, that was like a pivotal time when I was like, ‘Okay, this is about to kick off,’ and it did.”

From there, Bridey has gone from strength to strength, most recently celebrating the launch of her Stan docuseries, Pure Average.

The series takes viewers behind the scenes of Drake’s life, showing the raw, messy, unfiltered reality, which she explains she had no problems with.

“I’m an oversharer, and I’ve been doing this for years, so it didn’t feel weird ... My problem is keeping my mouth shut,” she laughs.

Being used to instant gratification through short-form content, Drake says the hardest part of filming a documentary was the two-year wait from conception to the day it was released. But the secret was worth it for Drake, who used the documentary as a way to help teach young girls how to live a wholesome, fulfilling life.

“Everyone is valuable. Everyone has a unique purpose. They’re here for a reason. And to I want them to watch the show and leave feeling inspired and full of purpose. I want them to know that their story is worth being heard as well,” she says.

“And that even if you’re a bit weird, a little different, maybe you didn’t fit into the mould, that doesn’t mean anything’s wrong with you. It just means that your gift is in a different area. And basically just to believe in yourself and fully send it.”

At just 25 years old, Drake has already achieved the level of success that most only ever dream of, but she hasn’t let it get to her head.

As well as a thriving social media presence and a pyjama empire, Drake is also building out her property portfolio, buying and renovating properties with her dad. They just purchased their fifth.

She says that spending time alone, with her family, or working on her properties with her dad keeps her grounded and separated from the side of the world that views her as a celebrity.

“If I ever came back and was prideful or cocky, my dad would be like, ‘Go outside, and don’t come back until that’s gone’,” she says.

“My dad says we all put pants on the same way. So when you wake up in the morning, you put your pants on. It’s the same for everyone. No one’s better. So I live by that.”