Her 8-Year-Old Drove Herself to Target and Became an Internet Star

By Gina Cherelus for the NY Times

When Tangie Wilson’s 8-year-old daughter, Zoe, asked to use her iPad early one Sunday morning in September at their home in Bedford, Ohio, she assumed her child had settled into her room or on the couch with the device, so she went back to sleep.

She didn’t know that Zoe, who was still upset after an argument with her older sister the night before, managed to sneak out of the house with her mother’s car keys, wallet and ID around 7 a.m. The third grader then drove the family’s S.U.V. — with the family’s dog, Bear, in tow — about 10 miles to Target in an act of rebellion.

“Not even 30 minutes later, her sister came in and was like, ‘Mom, where is Zoe? She took the dog,’” Ms. Wilson, a hair stylist, said in a phone interview on Friday. “And I’m like, ‘She just asked for her iPad, what do you mean she’s not here?’”

What followed was a brief missing-persons case that involved neighbors, family members and the local police. Zoe, who was found safe at Target nearly two hours later, became an internet and media sensation, leading many to question how a child so young could get herself to the store without hurting anyone, and how she ended up with a Frappuccino at the store’s Starbucks …

NY Times: I’m really glad she’s safe. How is she doing after all of this?

Mom: Well, the week after that, she was upset about going to school. She was like, “I’m worried because we’re doing multiplication, and multiplication is hard.” And I’m like, “Zoe, did you know how to drive a car before you drove the car the other day?” And she was like, “No.” And I was like, “OK, so just like that with multiplication, you don’t know how to do it but you’re going to learn.” So that has encouraged her a lot as far as her schoolwork.

Read the full article here.

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