Hi y’all! My name is Heba Madi; sometimes my best friends call me Hebs, sometimes the Starbucks baristas call me Heva or Hibba and sometimes, on a good day, Shayla Meyer calls me Hippa. I go by a lot of different things but am always anxious to hear more creative nicknames! I’m a sophomore at Wichita State University studying strategic communications and this is my second semester writing for CollegeFashionista. I could go on forever about what organizations I am in, what sorority I joined, what my favorite television shows are or even my favorite fashion bloggers. However, instead, I am going to tell you why it’s such an honor to be yet again selected as a Style Guru.
In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 16 there is a line that reads, “Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.” When life gets hard and when things change, my love for fashion remains the same. Some might call me crazy but it’s so much more than a tedious obsession. I don’t know how to explain it but somehow it gives me hope that if a Muslim hijabi can live out her passion for dressing up and writing then somehow we can use it to fix this complete and utter broken world. Through all the broken times, fashion remained steady, strong even. To many clothing and beauty is this fun avenue but its much more than that. It’s a symbol of strength and dignity. I mean if it wasn’t would TOMS shoes have been able to give 45 million children in need new pairs of shoes? Or would Glamour’s The Girl Project been able to pay for teenage girls’ educations around the world who have been denied that right? Fashion is this never dying icon that lives to make this world a better place. Sure, retail therapy is my stress reliever and dressing up is my pick-me-up, but fashion at large stands for more than just beauty and money well spent. So here’s to hope and here’s to a love of fashion that will never alter!
