Computers, smartphones, toys, household items are all gifts that people will open come Christmas Day. But Dara Kowlessar-Jackson wants people to open more of an uncommon, traditional kind of gift: a letter.

She started a business where she writes letters for others to give to their loved ones and friends – not only for the holiday season throughout the year.

The 26-year-old from central Trinidad started her business, SpyceDeclarations, in January and hopes that through her work she can study how love letters can used as a way to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Kowlessar-Jackson, a UWI graduate, said her background is psychology and there aren’t many opportunities for employment in the field.

“I really thrive on helping people and working with people. So the other available jobs, I was not happy in them, and it was also the pandemic. Working for people was also scarce.

“I decided I would make my own business. Something simple.”

When she gets to her PhD, Kowlessar-Jackson wants to apply what she is doing now and study how different creative interventions can help people cope with past trauma.

She also wants to find evidence that teaching people how to do wire-bending or Carnival costume creation can help with stress and depression. She wants to carve a path for the Carnival industry in the medical field.

But in the meantime, she decided to blend all the things she loves: psychology, creativity and her intense love for others, in starting her business. She writes poetry, paints and even studied playwriting with the late playwright Tony Hall.

The business is consultation-based and she speaks with her clients to find out “exactly what are the emotions that they are trying to explain.”

For her, it is a great business, as many people are unable to articulate exactly how they feel. Kowlessar-Jackson writes letters dealing with self-love, love, ghost, break-up, hook-up, erotic, farewells and proposals and even wedding vows.

She said she wanted to use her “gifts and talents” to help others voice their emotions.

Her first letter, a proposal, was for Valentine’s Day.

[caption id="attachment_931207" align="alignnone" width="576"] Letters have been written for people in Grenada, Barbados, Nigeria and Scotland. -[/caption]

She got her first client by simply advertising her services on social media, Instagram to be exact. That Valentine’s Day she got requests for ten letters.

As the months went by, Kowlessar-Jackson focused on improving her business by asking each client what she could do to offer a better service and by listening to their needs.

“By listening to them and making them feel like part of the process, I got repeats,” she said.

When there was a lull between May and July, she turned to TikTok.

“My brother (Krystian Ramlogan) is a filmmaker, and, by default, I always had an interest in video editing. And when I got my hands on TikTok, I said, ‘Let me make a video.’

“I did and the video got 25,000 hits or something like that. The video was just me saying, ‘Hi. I am