Kophie
“Stop caring what people think about you and don’t try and prove yourself to anyone.”
Kophie is an imaginative and multi-faceted artist who utilizes her creativity to enact environmental and social change. As a graphic designer and sustainability advocate for platforms like The Conscious Club, she utilizes her craft to help build a community that prioritizes ethical consumption and maintaining a healthy planet. Additionally, she runs her own clothing apparel brand that emphasizes re-purposing materials and eliminating wastefulness. Her urge to seek out crucial issues and use her own unique set of skills to work towards solving them is remarkable; she continues to draw outside the lines of expectation. Meet Kophie. This is her story.
Photo by @helengriffithsphoto
K: Please introduce yourself!
KS: Hey :) I am Kophie Su’a-Hulsbosch from Aotearoa New Zealand, my family is Dutch on my mothers side and Samoan on my fathers side.
K: Describe yourself in your own words
KS: I am a creative person and I am a self-employed artist/designer. I am driven by social, political and environmental issues that we face in today's society. I run my own business doing graphics, illustration and making sustainable streetwear. I have a secondary co-owned business that is a social enterprise that runs events with purpose called The Conscious Club.
K: What is your favourite thing about yourself?
KS: My empathetic nature that keeps me driven and caring about world issues.
K: Tell us a story. Have you had an experience that has defined you or made you stronger?
KS: There's too many to count or write about, my life hasn’t been easy. But getting through everything that life has thrown at me teaches me a lesson on how to be more resilient and stronger.
K: What is one piece of advice you’d give to your younger self?
KS: Stop caring what people think about you and don’t try and prove yourself to anyone.
K: What does being a woman mean to you?
KS: Women are incredibly strong and powerful.
K: Who is one woman that inspires you? What would you say to her if she were here now?
KS: Maybe not one women but a collective of people called the Pacific Climate Warriors, they are fighting for climate justice in the Pacific and working on preventing the warming of the earth over 1.5 degrees which will cause destruction in the Pacific. I would say to them you are amazing and never stop fighting.
