BusinessDay 15 April 2018
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Sunday <strong>15</strong> <strong>April</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />
C002D5556<br />
41<br />
Women’sWorld<br />
Diane Ezeh Aruah: 25-year old mother,<br />
lecturer, author living her dream<br />
Twenty-five-year-old Diane Ezeh Aruah is a lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria<br />
Nsukka. Aruah, who is married with a son, obtained her Bachelor of Arts and Masters in Mass Communication in the<br />
same university. She has successfully authored a book and will author another soon. In this interview with Ifeoma<br />
Okeke, Aruah talks about her passion and life as an author and a lecturer at a renowned university. Excerpts.<br />
What has the experience been<br />
like for you as an author and a<br />
lecturer at the age of 25?<br />
It has been a dream come<br />
true for me because being a<br />
writer and a teacher is what<br />
I had always wanted to be<br />
since I knew my name. By<br />
the time I was 10, I had read all my<br />
elder brother’s and mum’s novels.<br />
My mum saw my passion and<br />
bought me many novels. I basically<br />
spent all my savings buying<br />
story books. Till today, writing<br />
stories and teaching younger<br />
students bring joy to my soul. It<br />
is my life. There is nothing else I<br />
would do.<br />
What are your passions and<br />
skills?<br />
My most cherished passion is the<br />
gift of observation and research.<br />
I love to ask questions a lot and<br />
use my findings to teach and encourage<br />
younger ones through<br />
speaking and writing. People’s<br />
stories excite me, whether tragic<br />
or comedy. I recognize the importance<br />
of using stories to teach and<br />
that has changed my life in many<br />
ways. I remember a character in a<br />
novel I read when I was little. The<br />
protagonist was a girl who always<br />
told the truth even when people<br />
laughed at her. At the end, she got<br />
very much rewarded for it. After<br />
reading that novel, I made up my<br />
mind to always speak the truth<br />
regardless the consequences.<br />
Stories motivate, teach, entertain<br />
and inspire.<br />
How do you manage playing the<br />
role of a mother, a lecturer and<br />
an author?<br />
Honestly, being a mother and a<br />
working class can be very difficult<br />
to manage. Why? Because there<br />
is no one who can take care of<br />
your baby the way you would.<br />
You cannot trust anyone. Nannies,<br />
Creche, even your siblings,<br />
Diane Ezeh Aruah<br />
especially if you have a baby who<br />
has to be force fed before he eats.<br />
It takes patient and extra hard<br />
work to achieve both. It also takes<br />
appropriate planning, maturity<br />
and courage. Most importantly,<br />
it takes the grace of God. It is only<br />
God that can give you the inner<br />
strength to wake up by 4am every<br />
morning, cook for your husband<br />
and baby, wash clothes, go to<br />
work and come back tired, only<br />
to face other duties. But, if you<br />
have loving people around you<br />
who are always willing to help,<br />
things get easier.<br />
Plus size? Do not shy away from runway trends!<br />
What are your dreams in the<br />
next ten years?<br />
I see myself impacting life<br />
(Smiles), feeling fulfilled. I really<br />
want to help people through my<br />
stories and research. I also hope<br />
to have a larger family and live<br />
in a better world. I hope to have<br />
more than 500 publications including<br />
journal articles, books and<br />
articles. I hope to have attended<br />
many international conferences<br />
and travelled to at least ten countries.<br />
I hope to have blogs and<br />
social media pages where people<br />
visit to find solace and fulfilment. I<br />
hope to be known for good things.<br />
How far has your book sold?<br />
I have sold more than 5000 copies<br />
of my books across the country. I<br />
plan to have a larger readership<br />
soon because I am in the process<br />
of going online. It is no longer<br />
news that we live in a digital<br />
world and every wise person<br />
should make use of that great<br />
opportunity.<br />
Can you tell us about the books<br />
you have authored and the messages<br />
you have passed across<br />
through them?<br />
I currently have 50 short stories,<br />
two unpublished novels and<br />
one published novel titled “The<br />
First Time”. The First Time is my<br />
most successful and significant<br />
work because it is related to the<br />
experience of many young ladies<br />
in my hometown Nsukka, where<br />
girls of 16-20 are being pressured<br />
to get married, even when they<br />
are yet to come out of secondary<br />
school. The mindset of many<br />
parents over here is that a woman<br />
must be married before 25, else<br />
be considered old, used and unmarriageable.<br />
Less of women<br />
have dreams and are hardly empowered.<br />
There seems to be a<br />
competition amongst young girls<br />
over who gets married first or<br />
who have more kids. It pains my<br />
heart when I see many potential<br />
and intelligent girls get married<br />
to men who are very much older<br />
than them, men who would never<br />
encourage their dreams. I believe<br />
there is a lot of work to do to<br />
change the mind-set of many Nigerian<br />
girls towards marriage and<br />
The First Time is a very important<br />
step in achieving that goal.<br />
The title of my second book<br />
which I am about to publish is<br />
‘Cold Hands.’ The story is about<br />
a 28 year old successful female<br />
gynaecologist who refused to<br />
get married because of what her<br />
female patients pass through in<br />
the hands of men.<br />
Who are your role models and<br />
how have they impacted your<br />
career?<br />
My biggest roles models are my<br />
parents and my husband. My<br />
husband is like my footpath; he<br />
makes the most difficult task look<br />
so easy. When I’m down, he lifts<br />
up my spirit. My mum on the other<br />
hand is my star. The first time I<br />
entered class was the best teaching<br />
moment of my time because<br />
of the way my mum prepared me.<br />
She made me feel very confident,<br />
and believed I could do anything.<br />
She was the first editor of my<br />
novel. She pushes me to achieve<br />
my dreams; she made me believe<br />
age is just a number. Her trust in<br />
my capabilities amazes me. My<br />
dad, on the other hand provides<br />
lots of opportunities for me to<br />
grow. He is a generous provider<br />
and I thank him for always being<br />
there. In my next world, they<br />
would still be my models.<br />
What is your advice for young<br />
ladies struggling to have a family<br />
and still run a successful career?<br />
I want women to get rid the mindset<br />
that marriage is the ultimate.<br />
Yes, it is very important but we<br />
should never have to feel pressured.<br />
We should get married<br />
because we found someone<br />
to share our lives with, and not<br />
because the society expects<br />
us to. I also want them to know<br />
that building their dreams is as<br />
important as the air we breathe.<br />
An independent woman exhumes<br />
respect, honour and friendship<br />
in the face of her husband. She is<br />
the pride of her society and her<br />
family.<br />
JUMOKE AKIYODE<br />
As ladies, we all want<br />
to get with the latest<br />
trends in fashion. But<br />
unfortunately, not all<br />
season’s trends and everything<br />
on the run way is suitable for everyone,<br />
or so we think.<br />
It is more difficult for plus size<br />
ladies to just throw own whatever<br />
they see in high street shops but<br />
of course that is not to say that<br />
plus size ladies cannot be fashionable<br />
or trendy. They sure can<br />
keep up with the latest trends<br />
but they must make sure that<br />
whatever outfits they choose to<br />
wear is comfortable and flatters<br />
their figure.<br />
It is important to note that<br />
there is no hard and fast rule to<br />
what a big person can and cannot<br />
wear. In fact, fashion experts have<br />
proven with time that whatever<br />
can be worn by a size 4 lady can<br />
also be worn by somebody who<br />
is a size 16, just in different ways,<br />
styles and probably colour, to<br />
make it suit the figure better.<br />
Cold shoulder tops are in vogue<br />
now and everywhere you turn to,<br />
you see someone wearing one.<br />
This style is perfectly suitable for<br />
fuller figured women as it shows a<br />
little bit of skin but not too much to<br />
make it look off putting . Just make<br />
sure that the fabric is not too clingy<br />
that it shows all the fat rolls and<br />
the pattern is not too bold, that it<br />
makes you look even bigger than<br />
you actually.<br />
A lot of people actually believe<br />
that button down shirts are unflattering<br />
for plus size women. However,<br />
Nicole Brewer, an international<br />
fashion stylist says; “Button-down<br />
shirts complement curves,”<br />
“Look for one that has stretch<br />
and design details that create<br />
shape, like darts, ruching, and<br />
wrapping.” For an even more<br />
slenderizing silhouette, “layer<br />
the shirt under a blazer, jacket,<br />
or cardigan—it will shrink the appearance<br />
of your midsection and<br />
elongate you,” says Brewer.<br />
Fashion experts have said that<br />
the key to a flattering garment<br />
comes down to fit and not colour.<br />
So, just because you’re plus size<br />
does not mean you should drown<br />
yourself in black or dark colours<br />
so that you can ‘look slimmer’, just<br />
make sure that whatever colour<br />
you’re wearing compliments you<br />
skin tone.<br />
Never shy away from new<br />
trends because you think it was<br />
made for skinny people. Plus size<br />
ladies should always remember<br />
that; ‘If it floats your boat, by all<br />
means go for it’. The trick is to<br />
adapt a trend in a way that works<br />
for your shape.<br />
If you really want to wear a<br />
crop top because that’s what is<br />
in season, then opt for one that’s<br />
cut longer and pair it with a highwaisted<br />
pencil skirt or trousers.<br />
Are you dying to colour block<br />
your outfit? Wearing multi-toned<br />
pieces can be slimming if the vertical<br />
panels and darker shades are<br />
positioned on the areas that you<br />
want to downplay. Even hard-topull-off<br />
harem pants get the green<br />
light. “Find a pair with stretch and<br />
draping,” says Brewer.
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