She Never Called Herself Creative | Grace Abigail Devaprasath

Feeling like you're losing a race no one told you about is one of the loneliest experiences a creative person can have — and Grace Abigail Devaprasath spent years running it.

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Grace is 23, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and she will tell you straight — she never called herself creative. Bad O Level results. Bad A Level results. Always behind, always doing more just to escape the thought of not doing enough. Then she walked into a classroom of special needs children and everything she believed about creativity fell apart. Today she is head of projects at an NGO, co-founder of a sustainable clothing brand built for bodies the fashion industry ignores, and a collaborator to multiple creative businesses in Colombo — none of it from a degree, all of it from curiosity and a willingness to fail in public.

This episode is about what happens when you stop waiting for permission to call yourself creative.

In this conversation you will learn:

• Why spending years feeling creatively behind is not a sign you missed your window — it is the window
• How teaching special needs children rewired Grace's entire understanding of what creativity actually means
• Why she built a sustainable clothing brand specifically for mothers whose bodies the fashion market had forgotten
• How she manages multiple creative ventures simultaneously while keeping her Sri Lankan parents' peace of mind
• Why she would rather fail at something than spend her life wondering if she could have done it
• What she did the exact month she got fired from the job that was her heart and soul
• How to use curiosity as a daily practice even when you don't see yourself as a creative person

Host: Sheran Ranasinghe Guest: Grace Abigail Devaprasath — head of projects, NGO sector; co-founder, sustainable clothing brand; Colombo, Sri Lanka Recorded at: Hatch.lk Startup Hub, Sri Lanka Produced by: Odyssey House Media Episode theme: A 23-year-old who never called herself creative builds three ventures from curiosity and a refusal to play it safe.

🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/12SGsSsLz4DqlLFwxigjXX 🎧 Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/pl/podcast/the-creative-odyssey-podcast/id1750306317 📧 thecreativeodysseypodcast@gmail.com

🎙️ The Creative Odyssey Podcast explores the inner lives of creative people — why they create, what it costs, and why creativity might be the most important thing any of us can do. Hosted by Sheran Ranasinghe. Produced by Odyssey House Media. Recorded at Hatch.lk Startup Hub, Sri Lanka.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

But uh what I have noticed, I might be incorrect, but what I've noticed with a lot of these uh professionals and venials is that they are unhappy with what they do. But they stick to it for that stability. And uh personally I'd rather be more happy, more free. Yes, stability is important, but I'd rather use my creative side as well because I think it gives me much joy. What has worked for me is I would uh from if I am given a task, I would look at it from different angles. Uh rather than just getting that task done and ticking that box, I would go that extra mile. Don't always wait for a degree, don't always wait for somebody to come and teach you things or situation to fall into place. You can always push for that creative device or just explore. But something that people around me told and I also thought about. Now that situation happened and I couldn't have done anything to stop it, right? Okay, I wanted to make sure that even if I get fired in the future, I have something else to do. Yeah, uh yes, there is hard, but and at that moment, you won't be sometimes you won't be able to see beyond that. But walking away from those things and looking back, I have learned so much, and I would rather do that than to pay it.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

I just got done recording two days of my podcast, the Creative Artists Podcast, here at Hatch.lk, one of the leading startup hubs in Sri Lanka. Because my goal was to be able to tell stories of unique creatives here who are crazy enough to think that they can actually solve problems. To be here at Hatch and be inspired in what I'm doing, and to be able to tell these stories and have this uh studio and opportunity. I'm super grateful to Hatch. I feel affirmed in my mission to highlight creatives, and when I saw individuals from startups like inviting their own friends to be on here, so I can highlight their stories in their unique way of thinking. Every single one of them has so much insight to provide to anybody who's watching this, anybody who's thinking that they're not good enough to do what they're doing. Seeing stories from doctors who have changed uh careers in running startups to journalists doing this kind of things, like it gives me so much hope to be able to share this to others to say that like wherever you are at, if you're not active about what you're doing and you're stuck in your own bubble or whatever, find communities like Hatch because it is gonna be the best thing that you do for yourself because the community is absolutely amazing. Hatch, thank you so much for the support you provided. I can't wait to show you the amazing stories and the insights your own people are going to share with the world. I'm super excited to have Abigail, uh a fellow creator, a young creator, I might add, um, who's doing really cool stuff with her creativity. So, Abigail, welcome to the King Waters Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here today.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Absolutely. Uh, thanks for saying yes. Um, first of all, um who who who are you and and what do you do? And how are you here?

SPEAKER_02 3:22

So currently I am a head of projects for an NGO. And apart from that, I do a lot of other things. I dabble in marketing, I dabble in PR, and I have my own clothing line as well with uh one of my close friends. So we are business partners in that, and then I also um help out another one of my friends who's a graphic designer, so with his business as well. So doing a bunch of things, but yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

So how did you get on get into all of this? And and what age did you get started?

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Yes. So um so up until A levels, you know, in the Sri Lanka culture you had this after school, you go to your knee and that. But for some reason, as soon as I finished school, I got into teaching. Oh wow. Yeah. So while I was waiting for my results, I got into teaching, and teaching is a very creative field. From helping the kids understand certain concepts to the art worlds and things that you do. It's a very uh dynamic field where you get to explore different things.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

What did you teach by the way?

SPEAKER_02 4:23

I thought special. Yes. So it is uh it goes the extra mile again to get things to be interesting for the kid. So you need to think outside of the box. But that is part, so until that point I never thought of myself as somebody creative. I played music, I did uh I played the violin and the piano and things. But uh it was because yeah, I was passionate about it, but I never saw myself as a creative person. Because in my head, creativity is limited to art and you have to draw and you have to paint, uh you know. So I can't do anything. I can't even draw a stick stick man, right? So never thought of myself as such. But when I got into teaching, I realized that creativity is much more than that. It's about the way you think things, right? Down to certain ways that you operate. So all of these things actually that kick-started my passion for the entire creative, and more than that, uh, I never saw art, even when it comes to art and things, it was just art. But then I started enjoying it because I saw the kids create, I saw the like small things like that, how that age impacts your ability to interpret what you're feeling onto the paper as being so that kind of pushed me into exploding this more. And fortunately enough, I was placed at a company um there my boss, the manager there, I was a PhD for him, and he pushed me into triangle things. Always forced me into triangle things. So again, with event planning and all ideas, something where where when you take an event, I tend to see all the small details more. I tend to see, okay, if the lighting is here, then the shadow is gonna be here. Sort of things, right? Uh that kind of again sparked a lot of interest and curiosity into okay now how come people don't notice this? Why is this not? You know, because I always saw myself as a dumb kid as a oh wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Uh hi, nice to meet you. I am also an ex-dumb person.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

So um that uh sparked that curiosity, and I I think uh other people also saw that. So before I saw myself as creator, other people started seeing that. And uh I fortunately I had a good team who always encouraged me, and the managing director, he was also pretty amazing. So uh that again pushed that curiosity. And I think light is beautiful in that way. I was blessed to have uh people who encouraged that. And uh so in that particular office setting, I bonded with three people. So all three of them have their own creative segments that they run. One is a marketing agency, one is a graphic designer, and the other was an ex-digital marketer. So I was the youngest. So I would just hop onto their desk and be like, okay, what are you doing today? Like, how do you do this? Teach me this and all that, and uh they would sit me down and they would like spoon tweet things and be like, okay, GC, you can do it like this. Then I took it from them and I used to do it and go it go to them and be like, Okay, I did it like this. What do you think should change? Right. And all children they never be like, okay, this is wrong, this is right. They'd rather be like, okay, you see it like this, that is good. So with me, I learned it may on a practical basis rather than a more theoretical basis. That's how we'll all this be. So uh hands-on experience is something that I was privileged to have to get. And I think this kick-started my curiosity to another level. Um, I also had uh this thing of uh not sticking to one thing. I don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. I love to explore different verticals and different uh so everywhere I go, even with work, I start off with something like this job, particularly I am a head of projects. But along the way, now I manage a jewelry line as well as uh bungo as well. So it just a lot of things all the time. Um, I like to do that because for me I'm very hungry to learn. So I want to be able to optimize my time and also to be able to involve myself in different uh creative environments. Um so that's how I do a bunch of things. And uh with my clothing line, particularly that how that came into the picture was also because we started noticing certain gaps in the outcome. And we thought of coming up with creative ways to cover that. So that's basically uh overview of what I've been doing as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 8:53

We're so excited to share with you all the episodes that we filmed in Sri Lanka. We know a lot of you have been waiting, but we wanted to make sure that we did this really meaningfully because it really was an exciting time. When Tron first came to me and said he was gonna take the podcast to Sri Lanka, I honestly thought he was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

And so did I. I was like, is any possibility we can get this in? I want to try to bring the podcast in and get some more people and interview videos.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

So we expected to have just a few conversations, maybe a little sparks of inspiration here and there, but what happened was so much deeper than that. We met so many people that not only you got to interview, but that also like came alongside us to help make these conversations happen.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

The crazy thing was this daring idea of going to a country. You went to one country like I hadn't been back for like seven years, and all I knew was some people from school that I went to and some social media that I've been following, but didn't really have a concrete plan to make it happen. And some days we had six, seven episodes back-to-back recorded because people were waiting and you were kind of facilitating that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:01

Yeah, so it felt really significant because not only was it that we were having like these raw and authentic conversations, but a lot of their stories resonated with drawn, and so it just was really fascinating to see them speaking the same language and to see like just this commonality of creativity and identity and purpose coming out as the themes of these conversations.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

You must be wondering when this could happen. It happened in September. And uh the goal was to get these episodes out by September. Well, a lot of things happened, and I didn't want to diminish the work we put in and again the amazing gifts that we had. So we decided to do something really cool and within cost how many we can a week.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

So, LinkedIn, every single episode, you'll find a free PDF. It's actually a magazine that we developed. You can kind of think of it like if you go to a concert and you get like the souvenir of what happened behind the scenes and just about the different artists and all those things. We wanted to share with you not only about Tron's journey, but then help you connect with some of the guests that we interview in Sri Lanka, and then invite you on your own creative eye.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yes, there's so much more that goes into all that fuels this podcast, which is this this mission to inspire people to create so that they can get to know themselves and connect with ANHA. So to see that we could bring that story out of Sri Lanka and creative out. I was raised of creatives, it was definitely a habit.

SPEAKER_03 11:28

Our hope is that whether you're living in the States, you're living in Sri Lanka, or somewhere else around the world, you'll connect with someone's story within Sri Lanka and it might inspire you to continue on your own creative process.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

The link to the PDF for the magazine is in the description, and please check it out. They're doing really cool things that I really think you should be checking out to see their journeys. So without further ado, let's get to the episode. What are the the limiting beliefs you used to struggle with? Sounds like you don't have any.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Used to is not I still struggle with a lot of uh things. Because I think uh with creativity and in like in general, there's so much to learn, right? And it's always uh something new every day, right? And uh for some reason I've always felt like I've fallen behind um because in school I was not I I had the brains to study, but I didn't have the patience or the interest in. So I used to prefer my extracurricular activities like music, singing, violet, more than the school work. So that kind of kept me behind. Um my old over the sounds wasn't great, my old season wasn't great. So I always felt like it was this race that I was always losing out on. I was always falling behind. And that mentality hasn't changed. So sometimes even though I I know that I'm hungry to learn, sometimes I feel like it's me tr doing a lot of things just so that I can escape the thought of not doing just so that when I look back, I'm like, okay, I've done this, this, so tick tick, tick, okay, I've done like ten things this year. Okay, fine. Um, so it comes with that gray react on this still. I don't know how to overcome that even today. Um, which I know is very limiting because I tend to doubt myself a lot. I know. Even coming here was big, like I was like, no, because uh I don't know, for some reason it's very hard for me to see who I am. Uh I usually get a lot of feedback from my close friends on who I am. So that self-identity again is something that I struggled with a lot.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

So yeah, I think um for me also, until I actually sat down with myself, with my thoughts, and started journaling or just processing all those things and things and and asking questions about myself. Like even all the the narrative society gave me, right? Like um, it's so important to kind of sit there and ask questions and ask what is the truth in the situation versus what is the what is not. And and and that for me was the most like freeing thing, because uh, first of all, it's cool that you're doing this at at 23 years old. Um but yeah, I so my my my encouragement to you is that you're a very busy person, but try to sit with yourself as much as you can. Um and even the um Michelle I was talking to, she's a journalist and all of these things. She also became this at such a late age in life, and now we hang on to this time we can get to spend with ourselves as this sacred thing almost. Because every time you do that, you connect with yourself. Um so wait, you just jumped into like uh a clothing brand. Uh talk me through that, like what?

SPEAKER_02 14:53

So, as I said about previous uh birth face, I met this lumby deity, and together both of us joined and created this. It was actually her passion um which she shared with me and it became my fashion as well. So together we could created this journey. So uh the idea behind it is to create clothing where people feel comfortable. It's not trendy, it's not fast fashion, but rather sustainable. And also something where people don't have to think, okay, I had to wear a shape there for this, I have to look a certain way. But also we wanted to cater to the a large audience where people who like rompers for day two day wear, they had that option. Oversized t-shirt, they had the option. And uh specifically we wanted to cater to the mums, right? Because after pregnancy the body changes a lot. And unfortunately the market still hasn't caught up to that, right? Um, so they create very restrictive outfits just to fix that, you know, the mold of what beauty looks like. And a lot of them what we we actually went and talked to a lot of moms, and a lot of them don't want to fake into anything. They just want to be comfortable, they just want to live life and exist. So with our pants connection that we made, that was one of our key things. Uh it it gives you a comfortable wrap uh while also making sure that you look okay, you don't good, uh, and also keeping that space for you to explore different fashions and styles and all. Because I know, for example, my mom she doesn't lean towards ginger because she thinks you know it's too tight and or a bulging holder. But these we created the with those things in mind, but we got the feedback that they got, and we made sure to make like keep samples out and test it out, make sure they're comfortable, they love it, and get their feedback. So it was a lot of work. I know a lot of my friends keep asking me when is the second launch, but we want to make sure that it's perfect, it's not just something you put out because we pour our heart and soul into it, and uh the people that we cater, they unfortunately don't have other places to go to as well. So we want to make sure that they their needs are met as well as in a in a creative way, how can we work on that target? That is the idea behind it.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

So I mean Is it fair to assume you don't know everything? Right? Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

So how do you jump into these ventures and things like that without knowing anything? Like what's what's the mindset behind this?

SPEAKER_02 17:31

To be quite honest with you, I'd rather fail than to go on in life and then think technically like okay, I didn't do it. I'd rather take that risk. I'd rather jump into something blind and you know, dump into the leaf and then learn than think it's it. I think my parents stand over with it the most.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Okay, let's start with the parents then.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

My parents and actually my friends' parents and my parents tabulated the mosque because every time they asked me what you are doing, what are you doing? I'm just like this this this and like you told us this, this, this last month. Like, yeah, bad things happen. So uh yes, and so I think they started with because still that the Sri Lankan mentality is that for stability you need to stick to one. But uh what I have noticed, I might be incorrect, but what I've noticed with a lot of these uh professionals and that they are unhappy with what they do, but they stick to it for that stability. And uh personally I'd rather be more happy, more free than yes, stability is important, but I'd rather use my creative side as well because I think it gives me much joy and it brings out that inner child in me, which I really enjoy.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Um so take those things into consideration, I think uh isn't that mumbo jumbo connection with your inner child.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

I mean I'm serious, like because I mean you're also living in Sri Lanka, so like there has to be a challenge to explain that to people.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

Yes, a lot of people don't understand that. Um so what I have found that works for me and works for my parents' piece is I find a stable job. I do my stable job to the best of my ability, and then I do a lot of other things on the side. So I'm not I'm not bothering my parents. I'm not going far away from that path, the societal path, the norm. But I'm also not missing out on things that I want to do. If I wanted to do something and I really, really want to do it, then I wouldn't do it. I would find a way to do it. So that is something that I have that way I keep everyone happy at least.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

So I mean, I I've been talking to people who are much older, I guess, in certain times at this point. And I've been asking what do you have to say for the young people or the older people? Um how does one get in touch with their curiosity, in your opinion?

SPEAKER_02 20:12

What works for me is uh what has worked for me is I would uh from if I I'm given a task, I would look at it from different angles, I would look into the details. Uh rather than just getting that task done and taking that box, I would go that extra mile. But I think uh for me what works is research and reading about things, looking at things that other people do and uh sitting with them having a chat. You know, I would go up to somebody in an art student and they're like, okay, how do you think of this? You know, because everybody everybody has that creativity in there, it's different, right? So when you get to explore that from each person, your perspective of the world also changes and your creativity also gets enhanced, right? Because certain things you wouldn't have thought of being that act before that, right? So uh I would say talk to more people, you can read up, watch YouTube videos. Um just uh educate yourself. Don't always wait for a degree, don't always wait for somebody to come and teach you things or situations to fall into place. You can always push for that uh creative release, always explode. Even if you're really bad at it, right? What the world that can happen.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Right. Well you lose money and you can you know really bad risky gamble on something.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

That's true. Um so in my taught choices is if uh if I'm a Christian and what I believe is that if it is meant to be my it would always come true, right? So we what I do also, I try to give it my best. That's all I can do. From my capacity, what I am called to do is to give my best. So I'll give my test. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, at least I walk away knowing that I give my all you know. There's no recuts.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

So you don't mind failing?

SPEAKER_02 22:10

No, I don't.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

So you're pretty free in that sense.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Very cool.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

I think okay, I accept the limitation that you put on yourself. And also for me, I got to that place because I thought of, you know, everybody thinks that resources are limited. Opportunities are limited. Like, okay, if you have X amount of money in your bank and use it on something, then that you're dying. But it is not. You keep limiting yourself. Yes, uh, a lot of people have a lot of other commitments and you need to make decisions wisely. You can't just skip up your needle thick things. But if you properly do your research and also give it to all, at least you walk away, even if it doesn't succeed, you walk away learning Satipara. You walk away with a skill. Yeah. Which you can try. You can use that skill on Kantinas in the future. Like so far, I had gotten fired as well. I gotten fired, I got me. So, but walking away from those things and looking back, I have learned so much.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

Right. And I would rather bullets than face.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

So how can we, you know, especially young people, right? And I even hope I gotta stop saying young people only because it's also old people. How can we change like you you mentioned like every failure, instead of looking at as a negative thing, you look at it as what benefits did you get, what skills did you get? So then is failing almost like a requirement?

SPEAKER_02 23:58

Yes, it is. Because I already have learned, but I learned without those. At least in my life, it has always been that I learned more through my failures than through my weights.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

So let's be real. Like failure is hard.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

It is very hard.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Tell me about a time when you really like went low. I mean you had to, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

Um, as I mentioned, I got fired from a job that I really loved. I pursed my heart and my soul almost. And um I when I take on a job, I put my entire self into it. So it was something which I actually didn't have a personal life. It was I was fully dedicated to it. So when I lost the job, I lost a father myself. I shut down Kagditi, I was not happy, and I didn't know what to do because my vision for the future was entirely dependent on it, right? And uh that was very hard. But something that people around me told and I also thought about, now that situation happened and I couldn't have done anything to stop it, right? But sitting and being sad about it is not going to. So I actually took a lot of work, but from that pain, that uh intense passion to have okay, I wanted to make sure that even if I get fired in the future, I'll have something else to do, right? So for thinking ahead, that's how MN Work also came into play. That was the same month we launched MN Work, and that was the same month uh I my friend launched his trap studio, and I helped him out with that as well. So yeah, uh yes, there is hard, but and at that moment, you won't be sometimes you won't be able to see beyond that. But I would say without taking harsh decisions in ADK, reflecting on those things, sitting with yourself, journaling it through and understanding and also trying to see the positive. It doesn't mean that you have to be positive all the time. Yeah, but uh you can choose to see the positives and the learnings and also focus on that more.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

On that note, uh Abigail, you've you've been uh I've been saying this a lot from all the young people that I've been introduced, uh interviewing. You're a breath of fresh air. Uh, you inspire me. Uh, I wish I knew you when I was your age. I could have been I'm done doing so much more cool things. Uh no, seriously. I think people like you, we need to uh um enhance your voice and and and bring it out more because people need to see that um there is good in community, especially good community, um, and then that kind of encouragement. So thank you for being on the podcast. Um, I I learned a lot from you actually. Um, yeah, um, all I ask you to do in return is to keep dreaming, keep creating, and keep going on your own creative Odyssey. Until next time, see you later. Bye-bye.