by Salmah Siddiqi
In all honesty, my current local community is still something
I’m trying to get used to. For 9 years of my life, I lived in Kuala Lumpur (KL),
Malaysia. A small country in South East Asia, Malaysia is home to a
predominately Muslim population. With Malay, Chinese, and Indian citizens,
Kuala Lumpur, or KL, was the environment I grew up in. It was only during the
summer of 2017 that I moved back to the states for college and realized how different
both communities are. As a freshman in college with goals to become a fashion
journalist, I’ve realized how both communities in KL and Houston conflict with
and support my dreams.
When I turned 10-years-old, my family and I moved to KL. Seeing as I thought Malaysia was somewhere in China, the experience was a definite culture shock. Living in an international community, coupled with the fact that I was homeschooled, allowed for me to grow without a lot of the pressure that school puts on children. I realized that I loved both fashion and writing with an immense passion. To kill two birds with one stone, I decided to start up my own fashion blog.
My blog was definitely not a consistent hobby of mine, but it did open me up to the world of social media. In high school, I decided to delve further into social media by starting my own Instagram account to post photos of my outfits. By doing this, I learned about events going on in my area in KL; Mont. Kiara. An area made up of British and Korean expats, Mont. Kiara had a growing art community. Every weekend there would be open microphone sessions, art workshops, student fashion exhibits, and marketplaces at my local mall and cafes to help small businesses and young, budding artists get exposure. Each event allowed me to grow my network from artists to writers and even to small business owners.
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| A photo of NabiilaBee and me meeting |
Once I got to Houston, things changed. Houston is a lot
bigger than KL and thus very much spread out. This means that it takes a lot
longer to get from one place to another, compared to KL where everything is
relatively close. With my close-knit artist community left back overseas; I had
to find a new community to connect with. It took time but eventually I found
out that the majority of people who are interested in writing and the arts in
general are students and hipsters who occupy downtown Houston. The downside to
this is that I’m nearly 30 minutes away from this community of like-minded
souls because I live in the suburbs.
In my opinion, I don’t exactly think my current local
community supports or cares rather for my career of fashion journalism. It’s a
career choice that not many middle-class Americans in suburban Houston think
of. Even the Muslim community that I’m part of doesn’t necessarily support or
care for fashion journalism as most young Muslim’s I’ve met in Houston want to
pursue something in science, math, or business. Despite these conflicts with my
goals, I still want to find and interact with the downtown community of young
artists. Till then, I believe that I just have to keep searching and connecting
with people through various social media so I can build my network. Having this
large network makes it then easier for me to build my presence in the fashion
industry and one step closer to becoming a fashion journalist.
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