Catholic Group Protests 16-Year-Old's Doughnut Shop
An entrepreneurial teenager in Virginia was surprised when her gourmet doughnut shop provoked outrage from a local conservative group who accused her of promoting promiscuity.
According to Mommyish, Tiana Ramos started Naughty Girls Doughnut Shop in Front Royal, Va., when she was just 16 years old. The restaurant has a rockabilly theme, with pictures of Marilyn Monroe and Bettie Page on the walls, and the logo features a 1940s-style pin-up girl drawing. But the shop's name and aesthetic irked some locals, and within a week of the store opening someone drove by and threw garbage at the door.
"They literally threw trash at the door and said, 'Naughty girls burn in hell,'" said Tiana's mother, Natalie Ramos. "I started bawling, right there."
A self-styled "Conservative Alliance" in the town has threatened a boycott, and some people have been posting negative reviews on Yelp that accused the staff of looking like "hussies."
"These kinds of businesses do tend to attract, in part, a criminal element," said resident Mary Stanford of a gourmet doughnut shop run by a 17-year-old. "I don't like the idea of my kids walking down Main Street and having possibly criminal people lurking around."
Ramos' shop serves beignets, panini, and gourmet doughnuts in flavors like s'mores and "wakin' bacon," and she also ships her wares nationwide. She has also been awarded a full scholarship to the Culinary Institute of America.