Father buys 11-year-old daughter second car at graduation to teach early investment

Romario Pearson, a father of six with a shipping business, drew attention after buying his 11-year-old daughter Carika Pearson a car to mark her primary-school graduation. Speaking in a television interview, Pearson said the gesture was not as simple as it first appeared and that the vehicle was her second in a matter of weeks.

On the day before Mother's Day, he bought his fiancée—whom he planned to marry within weeks—a 2017 Audi wagon so she could hold a car in her own name ahead of the wedding. The family already owned a vehicle, but Pearson said they wanted her to have something registered to herself. They woke Carika to surprise her with the Audi, though she did not warm to it because, in his words, it was a ladies' wagon. He suggested she treat it as an investment, either delivering packages for his shipping company or renting it out. By graduation day, that first car was already on rental.

Pearson said classmates sometimes singled Carika out at school, including comments about her not having a mother, and he wanted her graduation to stand apart. The day before the ceremony, after searching without success, he located a Subaru through a customer for about $25,000. He chose a larger Subaru in the same year as her stepmother's, in a different colour, priced near $25,000.

After the graduation room, her stepmother, nine-year-old sister and grandmother blindfolded her and led her outside to the car. Carika said she sensed a surprise was coming but did not know it would be a vehicle. At 11, she practises driving only off public roads; her father confirmed she is not licensed to drive on the street, though she has driven him a short distance to a nearby car wash.

Carika is a sprinter who sometimes runs longer distances and looks up to Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, though she has never met the Olympic champion. Asked about dream cars, she named a Lamborghini and said she would like a Cybertruck if she went to America. On criticism that an 11-year-old should not own a car, she said, "I know that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. And they don't really understand."

Pearson, who also runs rental apartments and said he uses vehicles in his business, described the purchases as a way to give his children their own income streams early. He rents cars through his network, noted he also has a 13-year-old with a vehicle, and said, "If I was a white man, nobody have a problem with it. Me sure about that." He added that he and his fiancée were discussing a pre-nuptial agreement before marriage. Carika said she plans a Father's Day surprise for him, possibly with a blindfold, and intends to keep pursuing track with Olympic ambitions.