The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

INSPIRED by a poem by the late iconic rapper Tupac Shakur, Bahamian Kiara Rose launched a blog in the midst of the pandemic which has evolved into a popular beauty and lifestyle website and produced an accompanying accessories shop.

The poem in question, “The Rose That Grew From the Concrete”, was written between 1989 and 1991 and refers to how something great can grow from less-than-ideal circumstances – like Kiara’s blog and business during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In 2020, with much time on my hands at home, I started writing daily and decided to start my first blog. In December 2020 I introduced my blog to my friends and family, and on January 22, 2021, I launched my blog and shop: From The Concrete. This name was inspired by the late Tupac Shakur’s famous poem ‘From The Concrete’- as it tells a great story about great things that can grow from unfavourable circumstances...like the pandemic. It is also a play on my middle name Rose,” she told Tribune Woman.

The groundwork for having her own blog and shop was laid during college. While attending the University of Central Arkansas, Kiara pursued numerous internships and gained as much experience in the corporate world as she could.

“While abroad, I knew I wanted to do more outside of a nine to five. I was a lover of blogs and would spend most of my free time reading blogs by women with similar backgrounds,” she said.

After launching the blog, Kiara said so many readers responded to her, sharing with her feelings and sentiments similar to the ones she was posting about. On her blog, she talks about everything from beauty routines to the importance of mental health.

And with each post, her following grew. She then decided to add blog-branded merchandise to the website, which transformed the platform into a blog and shop.

“I am a lover of street style, so the graphic tee was a must. Additionally, if you know me well, I am always carrying a bag or purse, so the all-purpose crossbody and small tote was added,” she said.

Operating a business runs in Kiara’s blood, so to say; both her maternal and paternal grandparents were business owners. And as a child, she spent summers with her grandmothers and saw first-hand how they juggled their home lives and their business ventures. She also spent many days after school watching her dad carry out his duties as an exceptional father while running a successful business.

So beyond running a blog, Kiara was itching to expand her wings when it came to business ideas. And inspiration came to her while she was living abroad in Houston, Texas.

“While living in Houston, before returning home, I attended a drive-in movie theatre for the first time. This became quite popular in the city during the pandemic because all theatres were closed. I was excited and really enjoyed attending it,” she said.

“I talked about it for weeks and expressed to my parents that I wished this was a thing back home. They told me it was popular some time ago and they hadn’t been to one in years. I immediately got the idea to do my research to see how this can be revived.”

She knew something on the scale of a drive-in movie theatre would require a lot of funding, so she decided to start something similar on a smaller scale.

The result is Kiara’s Camp Out, an event planning company that specialises in setting up teepee style structures and offers big screen rentals for customers to have a unique outdoor movie-viewing experience.

“I had my first Kamp Out in my backyard with my friends and we had a grand time. I told them this was something I wanted to start as a business and they all supported me. One month later, I bought enough equipment to host a family of 25, and Kamp Out has been running ever since,” she said.