DENVER, Colorado – Nura Afia went from watching YouTube videos as a young mother, to becoming a fashion video blogger with an international following, to being named CoverGirl’s first Muslim brand ambassador.
Afia, a practicing Muslim, is one of the only women to appear in an advertising campaign for a major cosmetics or fashion brand in the US while wearing a hijab.
Starting her YouTube channel five years ago, Afia had more than 219,000 YouTube followers, 13 million views of her makeup tutorials, as well as a big following on such sites as Instagram, 341,000 follower, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.
Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.
Muslims make up 1% of America’s 322 million population, according to Pew Research center.