HOW IT STARTED
2020 - The Year We'll Never Forget
I remember sitting on my couch, watching the news in early 2020, sobbing at the state of the world.
The headlines flashed across the screen on a loop: Australia wildfires, the death of Kobe Bryant, political unrest between the US and the Middle East, heartbreaking social and racial injustice, and the cherry on top, a global pandemic.
Even reflecting now, it seems surreal. Now could I have gone without any one of those tragedies ever happening? Yes. But as my mother taught me, in life, we take the good moments as memories, and the bad ones as lessons, both equally as important and necessary.
2020: A Teacher
2020 taught me many things. It taught me compassion, patience, resilience, the art of slowing down and most notably, the importance of following my dreams because as we all learned, life is short.
While that infamous year lives as one of the strangest chapters in my mind, it also exists as one of the most exciting. Because 2020 was also the year I decided to take one of the biggest risks I have ever taken which I now know as (insert drumroll) The Wilds — a clean, genderless and planet-friendly skincare line.
A dream I had long fantasized about finally came to fruition almost two years ago and looking back now, the timing of it was actually quite perfect.
Because the foundation that The Wilds was built upon was so heavily influenced not just by own upbringing, but also a product of the environment it was conceived in.
Growing up first-generation Canadian — my parents immigrants of the Middle East — I was always hyper aware of my differences. I spent the better half of my life feeling out of place and uncomfortable in my own skin. This, paired with the incredible societal shift towards inclusion and acceptance, helped shape the exact message I wanted to convey through The Wilds.
Beyond ethical skincare and scientifically driven formulas, my mission quickly became the pursuit of cultivating a community that fosters unapologetic confidence, self-acceptance and the permission to be happily wild.
Now at the risk of sounding too “Eat Pray Love”, the last two years have been influential and transformative. And while there were such devastating lows, I feel so fortunate to have also experienced such incredible highs.
If you’re reading this, and have thought about taking a similar leap of faith, my advice is (as well as Nike’s), Just Do It.
Thank you View The Vibe for the Feature! See full article here .