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In 2013, nationally-ranked squash player Grace Connor began to lose a huge amount of weight. Her hair fell out, and her skin turned gray. For the entire year following, Connor described herself as having the “body of a 10-year-old.”
Doctors struggled to find out what was ailing Connor. At 5’3”, she weighed only 80 pounds (but ate tons of her homemade ice cream and cake), and her classmates all thought she was anorexic.
Finally, in 2014, Connor’s doctor finally found a tumor at the base of her brain that was affecting her body’s hormone production and regulation processes. Medication didn’t do anything to help, and Connor was slowly just wasting away.
Even though she was facing so many challenges and struggles, Connor never once complained to her friends – or the small but slowly growing number of clients she had for her homemade desserts.
The entire time Connor was struggling with her physical health, she kept her spirits going by making homemade ice cream, each flavor filled with homemade baked goods. She had begun stocking her food products at local Whole Foods stores and was beginning to sell custom-made cakes as well.
Just five days after Connor underwent brain surgery in April 2015 to remove the tumor, she insisted on returning home to make a cake and have it delivered, “Mom, I am getting out of [the hospital], I have a cake to deliver.” Connor let the hospital at 2 pm. The cake was delivered by 6 pm.
But it was only a couple days later when Connor began to bleed heavily out of her nose and mouth from overexertion. After Connor returned to the hospital to stop the bleeding, she was ordered to stay home and rest.
And she did spend much time on the sofa – but she also dedicated the next six school-less weeks to “making ice cream.”
After earning a spot at CommonWealth Kitchen, “a collaborative startup for food companies,” Connor was finally able to get all the resources she needed to officially launch her business, Little G Ice Cream Co.
While everyone – from her parents to her clients and grocery store owners – is amazed by what Connor has accomplished in her 17 years, she’s not yet satisfied. “I’m not going to be satisfied until I am next to every Ben and Jerry’s in the world,” she admitted.
