Aayushi runs her business with heart
Aayushi is a health advocate, business owner and former CMY volunteer. She runs her own business, Body Buddies, a health advocacy project.
Aayushi volunteered with several CMY programs throughout the years. She advocated for young people and helped shape CMY’s approach as a member of the Metro Youth Advisory Group (YAG). A highlight for her was being a speaker as part of Shout Out, a program that trains and nurtures young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds to share their experiences and views in public speaking opportunities. She reflected on her time with Shout Out fondly and thinks that speaking with the program is a must for young people.
“I think that experience telling my story to people confidently, that was such a great opportunity to bolster my public speaking skills, my confidence, and feel like, yes, I do have a story to tell,” Aayushi says.
“I’m a big advocate for CMY and what they’re doing, not only in the community, but what they’re doing to actually just empower multicultural young people…the space they’re creating for young people to make an impact is really, really important because we don’t have so many multicultural spaces.”
Aayushi’s business, Body Buddies, is an expanding organisation that provides plush toys of various internal organs in the human body. Some plushies for sale include hearts, brains, lungs, kidneys, muscles, ovaries, pancreases, livers and teeth, among many more. Paired with her current biomedical studies, Aayushi has always been interested in advocating for health education from a young age.
“I think health advocacy came when I understood that there is a lot of health inequities,” says Aayushi.
“The more I grew up, especially in Australia, as a woman of colour, you feel the need to stand up for other young people, other women, and other multicultural people. That’s where I developed this passion for advocacy and making a space for myself and then linking that with my other interest, which is health, ultimately led to a lot of my health advocacy work.”
The business has also expanded into selling scrubs which are a massive hit and has turned her passion into an educational and comforting business.
“I have one story that always resonates with me about an organ transplant recipient,”
Aayushi says.
“She was receiving a liver. She got the liver toy as a present and took that liver toy to hospital with her to keep her company throughout her whole transplant journey.”
Her business and her advocacy have led to Aayushi receiving two amazing accolades. The first, is her winning the In Her Name Scholarship for Business providing Body Buddies with more funding and a larger platform. Aayushi also recently received a surprising honour with one of the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) as part of the Suburban Rail Loop project being named “Aayushi” as part of a tradition dating back as far as the 16th century.
“This scholarship is really important to me because it’s my ability to inspire other young women, right? It makes me feel like, okay, what I’m doing is making a difference to the multicultural community, to the women’s space,” says Aayushi.
“[Having the TBM named after me] was a very special moment and very unique. It made me feel that multicultural women can be part of the fabric of Australia.”
With so many exciting opportunities on the horizon for Aayushi and her business, she left some parting advice for multicultural young people who want to become advocates like her.
“I always say to people, just any opportunity that comes your way, small or big, whether it’s to do a small fundraiser at your school or organisation or speak up in front of your class or if there’s some after-school program you can do. I always encourage you to step outside your comfort zone slowly, slowly,” Aayushi says.
“You don’t build a leader in one day and I think expecting yourself to go from A to Z straight away and suddenly have the confidence to speak in front of 4,000 people and share your story and sit at the table and share your opinion is very foolish. You need time to build those skills and that’s so fair.”