YORKTOWN — Najeonna Iman, the owner of dessert business One Girl Desserts & Pasteries (Now One Girl Desserts & More) is currently working to reopen her storefront in 2023.
Iman started her baking journey when she was still in middle school, going to local farmers markets to sell her baked goods to help her mother who was sick with Lupus, as well as to help her brother obtain a speech device. As she got older, she found she loved her business and started a bakery in Chesapeake.
In 2020 she opened her first storefront in Yorktown. Iman and her family moved to Yorktown because she wanted to get her family away from any memories of her mom’s husband as she was getting divorced. Shortly after, she herself working at farmers markets to sell her goods. Unfortunately, the 2020 pandemic, coupled with some bad online reviews, resulted in Iman closing her doors in 2021.
When the doors first closed, Iman struggled a lot with her mental health and had slipped into a depression, but with the support of her mother and her brothers, she was able to pull herself back on her feet again. She says that without them, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to give the business a second shot.
This time, however, Iman wants to include more than just desserts on her menu. Iman is changing the name of the business from One Girl Desserts & Pastries to One Girl Desserts & More.
“I’m evolving into more than just desserts,” Iman said. “The more would include a few of my recipes like chicken noodle/chicken and rice soup as well as a few of my mom’s most famous recipes including baked spaghetti, shrimp and rice, curry chicken, and much more.”
In order to start preparing her business to reopen, Iman has partnered with Riverwalk Restaurant to feature an event in hopes of raising and earning more money.
The event will be on Oct. 16 at the Riverwalk Restaurant and will include refreshments, music, karaoke, games, and raffles for an admission charge of $3 per person. The event will run from noon to 6 p.m. If the event does well she hopes it will become a once- or twice-a-month event.
Iman still conducts business online, but she hopes that the “pop-up” stores, as she called them, will help drive up her sales and let people know she’s back in full force. In addition to returning to Yorktown Market days, she also plans on joining the Williamsburg farmers market in order to share her goods.
After Iman opens her storefront again, she hopes to eventually make enough money so she can open up a nonprofit for children.
“That’s really my main focus. To get the business off the ground and get people to know who I am, and then I want to open a nonprofit called One Girl Cares, which would be an extension to my bakery,” Iman said. “And it would be a nonprofit for the community as a youth center.”
Iman is grateful for the support of the Yorktown and Hampton roads community that has helped her business grow and change over the last ten years from when she was 14 to now.
“I especially want to thank my mom, Kenya, who is my number one supporter, Steven at the Water Street Grill the York County Police Department, and Yorktown economic development. My pastor and his wife — Aaron and Heather — at Crossroads Community Church, and Karen Jones from the Natasha House, my bank manager at Yorktown Woodforest — his name is Moosa — miss Karen Brown, as well as the Girl Scouts for wanting to work with my bakery, my future nonprofit and the amazing commercial kitchen they allow me to use,” Iman said.
To RSVP for the event at Riverwalk Restaurant or order some goods for yourself, call 757-940-5269. Or visit onegirlgoods.net.
