Divya Ravikumar

Growing up in Limerick, Divya Ravikumar often felt like an outsider. “Being the only non-white person in the room can be intimidating. I feel I have to push myself forward as a result because I’m a woman and I’m not white. It means I have to speak up a little bit more.” As someone who works in health promotion and is a qualified dietitian, she has felt further pressure to be thin. “I am surrounded by a norm I’ll never be. I am not a thin, tall, white woman. I am a short, curvaceous, brown woman. I am beautiful and deserve to be represented.” Having suffered from depression, Divya is keen to point out that she hasn’t got life all figured out yet. “What I have been trying to do is show myself a bit more compassion. I paint and often see beauty when I put it down on paper. It might be something that people don’t see as ‘conventionally pretty’ or it could be a person you don’t notice, but when I work on an art piece, I feel like I can see beauty in anything. It is so linked with kindness and other attributes completely outside of what you see.”