While many young women her age are interested in fashion, hair and makeup, Leanna Khan has a healthy fascination with feet.
When she was 13, she started a vacation business going to people’s homes and doing pedicures, initially her own family members and relatives and eventually building a clientele on referrals.
Now 19, she has put the pedicures on the sideline because of the pandemic and has developed her own brand of footcare products – Pedilee’s.
“It’s just a combined, shortened version of pedicure and my name,” Khan told WMN.
Her line of products includes whipped foot butters, foot scrubs and foot soaks, all ranging from aromatherapeutic to subtle. She is working on a new product – a whipped foaming scrub which she is hoping to launch in a few weeks.
Khan’s interest in footcare began with her own feet.
“People always ask me, ‘why feet? How can you touch people’s feet?’
[caption id="attachment_901666" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A Valentine's Day gift box of Pedilee's footcare products. Photo courtesy Leanna Khan -[/caption]
"`It is just something I always liked doing and always made it a priority. I was always pampering my own feet and it grew into my passion and now a business,” which came as no surprise because of her foundation in business studies.
A former student of Providence Girls' Catholic School in Belmont and sixth form student at Bishop Anstey Trinity College East (BATCE), she placed ninth on the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) merit list for entrepreneurship in 2019.
In September, she will be going into her second year at the UWI, St Augustine campus where she is doing a first degree in management studies, with a possible minor in finance or marketing. Until then Khan is working as a communications intern at BATCE, where she is receiving training in media and marketing and content creation. “Which will further benefit me in my business,” she said.
She said she was driven to start Pedilee’s when she was in sixth form on the encouragement of one of her teachers.
[caption id="attachment_901664" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Organic handmade foot soak formulated by Leanna Khan under the brand Pedilee's. Photo courtesy Leanna Khan -[/caption]
“As a sixth form business student at BATCE pursuing my CAPE studies in entrepreneurship, I gained additional knowledge and necessary skills to start up my own venture. I was encouraged and continuously recognised by my teacher, Mr Pollard. Because of this I was able to integrate my passion while taking on the risk of a young, female entrepreneur.”
In 2020, when schools were closed and during the first lockdown, she used the time to research her products and do her business plan. Then, she spent countless hours in her kitchen in Arima working on her products. By October 2020 she was ready to execute.
“I am self-taught. During the four-month break from classes I looked at YouTube videos on making the products and I experimented with oils. I looked at things like shelf life, effects on skin, things like that. I g
