Dara Kowlessar-Jackson starts new old-time business with SpyceDeclarations

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.

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 a love-letter writer.’ I spoke about my letters and gave an example of an erotic letter in the video…”

This generated greater interest in her business. For the holidays, she added Santa letters to the list of those she offers. The idea was her brother’s.When he told her that kids would like a letter from Santa and a lot of times kids don’t really know their parents’ handwriting, she realised this was true and decided to do it.

To make it even more authentic, she got a Santa seal which is placed on each letter.

“Those letters are very simple, because the kids I have been getting are between four and eight. It is just basically a letter from Santa Claus saying, ‘I saw how good you’ve been this year and how the elves, Mrs Claus and Rudolph (the red-nosed reindeer) are very proud of you.’”

She said most parents asked her to say things that would want to make the kids be good next year as well,

She got five requests for Santa letters this year, but most of her holiday requests were from people wanting love letters for their loved one/s.

She received about 25 requests so far with more coming in. She even got two requests for proposal letters.

A lot of men have been getting their mums letters as well for the holidays, she added.

Jackson believes her business is thriving in the digital age because letter-writing is scarce, and people know that.

“At the end of the day, as much as people are chained to the rhythm of technology and the fast-paced life, deep down inside, every human being wants to be desired, they want to feel appreciated, they want romance, or whatever the case may be….These things will always be innate human desire…

“You can get anybody a gift that a hundred other people have. You can go to Hallmark and get a letter that hundreds of thousands of people across the world are buying.

“But to get something from your soul to connect to the soul that you want to connect to – how often do you get that?”

She said drafting and completing the letter depends on the client. Some take a 20-minute call, others an hour and a half, she said.

Depending on that and the “weight” of the emotion she is trying to express, it would take her anywhere from three to five days to complete one.

The letters are placed in gift bags and hand-delivered in a public space, if it is in Trinidad. Otherwise, she posts it through TTPost or international courier, DHL. She does digital letters as well, but Kowlessar-Jackson wants to keep her business as traditional as possible.

Most people wait to open the letter, Kowlessar-Jackson said. She said she believes this is because some people are afraid their reaction might not be nice and they would not want her to see it.

Some, however, open the letters immediately.

“I do send my clients pictures of the item before they collect, so they know what they are getting,” she explained.

The clients receive a draft and they tell her if there is anything that needs to be changed. Each client is given 24-hour access to her.

Because it is a small business, Kowlessar-Jackson is unable to do the packaging she would really like, but hopes to improve on that as the business grows.

She wants it to grow regionally and globally. As well as locals, she has also written letters for people in Grenada, Barbados, Nigeria and Scotland.

Kowlessar-Jackson also wants to grow a community through her business and hopes to have a self-discovery workshop in March or April next year. She also wants to do mental health workshops.

“I want to build a community where I teach people about love, relationships, how to communicate better and how to learn to love themselves.”