‘Kynlee’s Mixing Bowl’ business helping Lubbock teen cope with cancer

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - A Lubbock high school senior has found a new love of baking, bringing in some spending money, and more importantly, helping calm her anxiety as she battles cancer.

Kynlee White, a senior at Frenship High School, started her own business, ‘Kynlee’s Mixing Bowl.’

Kynlee turns 17 next week. Her favorite classes are forensic science and culinary class. After school, she loves watching Marvel movies and baking.

“It’s kind of calming for me. I have a lot of stress on my life, and you try to do little things, whether it’s listening to music or whether it’s taking a long drive, anything like that, but it’s baking for me,” Kynlee said.

She bakes in between all of the usual teenage stuff, like school and chores, but there’s even more on her plate. Kynlee was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2020.

“You feel kind of, I don’t want to say alone, because I have my family, but they don’t physically go through everything like that,” she said. “So, that was rough and then, after surgeries you go into like a depression state and your anxiety becomes worse about scans.”

Kynlee’s had 14 surgeries in three years. At one point, doctors suggested removing her leg.

“I don’t want to move muscles to other muscles, I don’t want to have to keep doing these cleanouts and nothing works. My mom and my dad were just like, I don’t want to cut your leg off. And I was just like eh, just take it. You know, kind of thing. I’m done with it,” she said.

Soon after amputation in January, Kynlee was eager to get her prosthetic and start walking again.

“I put it on and I was like oh, that feels kind of different. So, sadly I didn’t get to go run up and start walking. I had to do physical therapy and everything like that,” Kynlee said.

After some practice, she’s now walking around school and in the kitchen. Her dad suggested creating a Facebook page for ‘Kynlee’s Mixing Bowl.’ She started making sample boxes filled with chocolate-covered treats, and they took off.

“All of a sudden everybody’s just like, oh I want one. Put me down for two, kind of thing,” she said.

Completing the orders gives Kynlee a chance to let everything she’s going through fade away. Unfortunately, her cancer came back in her lungs. Right now, she’s taking chemotherapy pills and waiting for researchers to develop a cure.

She says it’s hard sometimes to live in the moment, but her parents make her strong. She wants to give that same encouragement to others who are struggling.

“Live in the moment, you just don’t know. And you’re a lot stronger than you think. Like you can feel really really weak at some times, and you’re just like I can’t do it, but you really can. You can,” Kynlee said.

You can support Kynlee and her business on Facebook at ‘Kynlee’s Mixing Bowl.’

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