Rupi Kaur is a very popular author, poetess, illustrator, and performer who gained immense success with her debut book, Milk and Honey (stylized as milk and honey). Born in Punjab, India, she emigrated to Canada with her parents when she was around 4 years old. There, she was bullied for her lack of ability to speak English and that’s why her mother suggested her to express herself via drawings and paintings and thus began her journey as an artist. Rupi Kaur channeled all her emotions and thoughts into her illustrations and poems and started performing in various events. The theme of her work revolves around women and their struggles, loss, healing, abuse, defying societal norms and taboos, feminity, self-care, and heartbreak. Her poems have a genuine simplicity that attracts the readers. Rupi Kaur has gained mainstream popularity and has more than 4.5 million followers on Instagram, more than 600k followers on Facebook, and more than 400k followers on Twitter.
Sun Sign
Libra
Residence
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Nationality
Education
Rupi Kaur went to Turner Fenton Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario. Afterward, she attended the University of Waterloo where she got trained in rhetoric and professional writing.
Sexual Orientation
Straight
Distinctive Features
- Expressive, almond eyes
- Lean physique
Brand Endorsements
Rupi Kaur has endorsed and promoted several brands such as Raw Mango.
Religion
Sikhism
Best Known For
- Her refreshingly new and simple style of writing accompanied by sketches and drawings
- Gaining mainstream popularity with over 4.5 million followers on Instagram
First Book
Her first book was titled Milk and Honey (stylized as milk and honey) and was published on November 4, 2014. It is a masterpiece that has sold more than 3 million copies and remained on The New York Times‘ Best Sellers list for more than 77 weeks.
She has described the book’s title as the changes that make women “smooth as milk and as thick as honey”. The immense popularity of the book also got it translated into 25 different languages.
First TV Show
Rupi Kaur made her first TV show appearance as a guest in an episode of the comedy music talk-show, The Tonight Show Starring , in June 2018.
Rupi Kaur Favorite Things
- Influencers – Kahlil Gibran, Alice Walker, Sharon Olds
Source –
Rupi Kaur Facts
- Her family emigrated to Canada when Rupi Kaur was around 4 years old.
- During her early years in Canada, Rupi Kaur was bullied because she could not speak English as it was not her native language.
- It was her mother who came to her rescue and encouraged her to express her feelings through drawings and paintings. Soon enough, Rupi Kaur started writing poems for her friends and middle school crushes.
- Her poetry started gaining attention and people would further ask her about her books.
- It was in the year 2009 that she performed for the first time in the basement of the Punjabi Community Health Centre in Malton, Ontario.
- Rupi Kaur has also created a photo-essay on menstruation which challenges the norms and taboos that women have been conditioned to believe in since ages.
- It was not until 2013 that she started sharing her work under her own name on Tumblr. Previously, during her school years, she used to simply create content anonymously.
- Her 2nd book is titled The Sun and Her Flowers and was published on October 3, 2017. It traverses around the themes of loss, trauma, healing, femininity, migration, and revolution.
- The Sikh scriptures as well as her journey from India to Canada, accompanied by the huge cultural changes, have influenced her writing style and the theme of her work.
- Gurmukhi script has influenced Rupi Kaur’s work a great deal and like the script, she also writes exclusively in lowercase and uses only the period as a form of punctuation. It is a symbolic gesture to honor her roots.
- While appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, she said that she used to think that one has to be an actor or a famous pop artist. However, for her, it was her poetry that did the magic and brought her to the show.
- Rupi Kaur landed in a controversy in March 2015 when she posted a picture of herself on Instagram with menstrual blood stains on her clothing and bedsheets. This was done to bring in light the various societal norms where women are forbidden to enter sacred places or go out of the houses during menstruation. Later, Instagram took down the photos for not complying with the site’s terms of service to which Rupi Kaur replied, “thank you Instagram for providing me with the exact response my work was created to critique”. However, the Instagram team responded with an apology claiming that the pictures were removed by mistake.
- She has also been criticized by a few for plagiarism in her work. Nayyirah Waheed, one of her contemporaries, has tried reaching her out citing that Rupi Kaur’s content is extremely similar to her own. However, the latter has not responded to such allegations.
- In 2017, she was ranked in the 100 Women list by BBC.
- Visit her official website @ rupikaur.com.
- Follow Rupi Kaur on , , , and .
Featured Image by Rupi Kaur / Instagram
Facts of Rupi Kaur
- Gender Female
- full nameRupi Kaur
- nicknamesRupi
- birthplaceHoshiarpur, Punjab, India
- Date of Birth October 04, 1992
- Age 32 years 0 months
- Horoscope Libra
- Lucky Number 8
- Lucky Stone Peridot
- Lucky Color Blue
- Best Match for Marriage Gemini
- ethnicity / ethnic backgroundSikh
- nationalityIndian
- net worth$1 Million
- professionAuthor, Poetess, Illustrator, Performer
- weight50 kg or 110 lbs
- height5 ft 5 in or 165 cm
- hair colorBlack
- eye colorDark Brown
- body type / buildSlim
- collegeUniversity of Waterloo