For best friends Emily Hau and Poppy Ridd, a week in ninth grade is made up of more than school, sports, and homework.
It also includes running a business: Pop ‘Em Brookies sells and delivers boxes of homemade brookies (combination brownies and chocolate chip cookies) to Rye residents, donating 50 percent of proceeds to local organizations.
Since selling its first order on Sept. 16, 2025, Pop ‘Em has sold over 85 batches of brookies and has raised roughly $800 for Soul Ryeders.
Brookies hybrid formula is a dessert-lover’s dream.
Pop ‘Em’s team is a similarly dynamic duo: Hau and Ridd have been friends since elementary school — Hau went to Midland and Ridd to Osborn — where they met through youth sports. Their shared love of sports and baking drew them closer at Rye Middle School, where they spent many a gym class circling the track and brainstorming ways to connect baking to their desire to give back to the Rye Community.
Hau, 15, is now a freshman at Rye Country Day School, and Ridd, 14, is at Rye High School.
Hau and Ridd’s first business idea involved cookies, but they soon realized the Rye cookie market was too competitive. They considered cupcakes, but didn’t “have the motivation to get it off the ground. We didn’t know where to start,” said Ridd.
Pop ’Em Brookies was the final iteration. “This time, whenever something didn’t work, we just didn’t take no for an answer,” Ridd said.
Hau and Ridd crafted their brookie recipe over the summer of 2025, then built a website during car rides from lacrosse tournaments. With the exception of parental assistance with buying supplies and delivering brookies (Hau and Ridd are not old enough to drive), Hau and Ridd manage Pop ‘Em from soup to nuts, even ensuring their parents are paid back in full at the end of each fiscal quarter.
Pop ‘Em, which fuses “Poppy” and “Emily,” has had giving back at the heart since its inception.
“Community has always been a big part of [our families], not just [a part of] the business,” Ridd said.
“The schools — Rye Middle School, Midland, Osborn — have really given us everything, and we both loved our experiences there,” Hau said. “And the sports … they provide everyone with great opportunities to meet people and to grow.”
For their donations, Hau and Ridd selected SoulRyeders, Rye Gives (Children’s Philanthropy of Rye), The Rye Nature Center, and Don Bosco Community Center, having seen firsthand their meaningful and sustained impact. Their donations will go to one organization for each of their four years of high school. SoulRyeders is their debut cause, in part because Ridd’s grandmother had cancer.
“I think it’s personal, to give back to something that made an impact for people who had similar struggles to hers,” Ridd said.
Hau and Ridd have always loved baking; inspired by their respective grandmothers, they both grew up experimenting with new recipes. The chocolate chip cookie half of Pop ‘Em’s brookies, for example, was perfected by Ridd through years of trial and error, long before Pop ‘Em was born.
Though Hau and Ridd note the difficulties of managing school and sports along with a business, “there is nothing we’d rather be doing,” said Ridd.
“We know we are making an impact,” said Hau. “So you feel productive, you feel good in doing that. It’s not a chore.”
It doesn’t hurt that Hau and Ridd admittedly sample a brookie from each batch. Their preference: fresh out the oven, occasionally with a cold glass of milk.
Pop ‘Em’s menu consists of s’mores, salted caramel pretzel, and classic fudge brookies. Through December and January, they debuted flavors like “snowflake flurry” and “peppermint explosion.” On Sunday, Feb. 8, Pop ’Em planned a Valentine’s Day pop-up sale at Rye’s Dabney Lee, featuring specials like red velvet and conversation heart brookies. Brookies are sold in batches of six for $18.
Their sales have led to a level of success that Hau and Ridd could have never anticipated.
“We’re almost at $800 in charity,” said Hau. “That’s just crazy. How did we do that?”
Their designated baking and delivery day is Saturday, dividing up orders based on their sports schedules; Ridd rows all year round, and Hau runs cross country and track, and plays basketball.
Hau and Ridd try to keep their entrepreneurial work to the weekends, but they Facetime multiple times a week after school, discussing orders, fixing spreadsheets, or tinkering with website glitches. Hau and Ridd credit their support for one another as getting them through challenging moments.
“It’s good to know that I can take a break when I need to and Emily will be there for me,” Ridd said. “I wouldn’t want to do this with anybody except” her.
Hau agrees: “No matter what happens, our friendship will always be strong. It’s just so much easier to navigate [Pop ‘Em] with someone else.”
Hau and Ridd envision passing down the business, perhaps to other high school girls, once they leave for college.
You can order your own batch and help contribute to SoulRyeders at popembrookies.com.
