CHRISTOPHER Lai isn’t the typical economist who is preoccupied with numbers and the stock markets. He has developed a knack for sharing his advice with others.

This has resulted in him becoming a director of the Jamaica Down Syndrome Foundation (JDSF).

“I really saw the need for there to be a greater awareness and greater assistance and, more importantly, greater acceptance for special needs people in the community,” Lai told the Jamaica Observer.

He said his involvement with the JDSF is dear to him as he sees a need for a change in how persons with Down Syndrome are treated and are often ostracised.

Lai, who was appointed to the board in December 2014, one of the youngest, is mostly responsible for marketing and increasing awareness among the population.

“Personally, since I’m in my first year of appointment, we want to create fund-raisers, which are not cliché and which can actually be very profitable and creative in reaching out. We still need to reach the private sector and we still need to reach the general public,” he explained.

He added that his dream is to see people with Down Syndrome be accepted in society for the creative, kind individuals they oftentimes are.

“All over the world you have Down Syndrome people doing great things,” Lai said. “I believe there is a young lady from Australia who has a booming modelling career. [So] if it is that we can reach that level where we generally welcome them as ourselves then… it’s easier for them to achieve stuff. It’s less pressuring and that extends to how they operate in schools,” he continued, as he explained that students with the disorder are often teased in school.

He said despite their presumed setback, people with Down Syndrome, once encouraged and welcomed, can do all things.

Popularly known for his blog, ‘The Lai Detector’ and his e-book The Lai Detector: Innovative methods on how to approach a lady, Lai has already touched the lives of millions through his writings.

Despite developing a liking for the art of writing at a late stage in life, he has achieved much in the field and hopes to continue doing so.

“Currently I’m a Huffington Post blogger and I contribute articles to Thought Catalog,” said Lai, who described himself as a young writer.

“I get millions of readers now, so I just want to continue to expand. I think a lot of people now worldwide, kind of seeing what I’m doing and… [are] really falling in love with my writing and my advice and everything, so I want to maintain that,” he continued.

His book, which was released in 2013, made the top 100 on Amazon’s bestseller list for the category ‘Love, Sex and Marriage’.

The book, he said, guides men on approaching women correctly in different settings — a practice which he realised many people have a difficulty with. He said that in interacting in different spheres he was angered by the decline in the respect towards women and how they were being approached by men, which, along with his affinity to writing, encouraged him to write a book.

Lai, who last year won the Caribbean Blog Award for Best Writing, said he is ready to launch himself further in the world, having gone through some humbling experiences.

The blog, which he started last year, discusses relationships and was a response to the negative light he was being painted in after completing his book.

“When I first started writing, my book took off to levels which I could never imagine… And in that same breath I was positioned as a womaniser incorrectly,” Lai said. “So I kind of took a step back from being a very successful young writer commercially and I started over. I then started my blog because I wanted to temper my direction,” he said, explaining that this decision came with its own challenges.

He said he had to work assiduously and constantly at his passion and was humbled by the challenges he encountered.

“It’s difficult to move from being a bestseller to begging people to read your blogs. ‘Can you check this out?’, but that’s the transition that I had to make,” he told the Sunday Observer.

Lai revealed that he has a second book to be published and still hopes to one day publish a novel and a book about sports and economics — two of his other passions.

“I do intend to have a very successful novel. I’m a young writer in the sense that I fell in love with it late in my life, so I can’t write as quickly as others, but I would like to have a bestseller or novel,” he said as he encouraged young writers to go after their dreams.