Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to the
Curation, a show for the
culturally curious.
This is your host, noor Hassan.
Each week, I'll guide youthrough a curated edit of the
finest in art, fashion, design,culture, luxury, wellness, tech
and more.
This is your go-to space fordiscovering trailblazing ideas,
untold stories and meaningfulconversations with innovators
(00:31):
and creators who are shaping ourworld.
There's no gatekeeping here, sosit back, tune in and let's
discover only the best together.
Get ready with me.
(00:53):
We'll talk a little bit aboutmyself.
We reached 10,000 followers onTikTok, but it's the perfect
time to do a get to know me.
I feel like a lot of people onthis channel don't really know
me that well.
I am 31 years old, you guys,and I'm very, very proud of that
, alhamdulillah.
I start with it because I feellike a lot of women like try to
hide their age, and there's noneed for it.
(01:14):
I always say you know, the 30sare the best years of your life
so far and the 30s are the new20s.
So I grew up in Jeddah, inSaudi Arabia.
I did not grow up in Cairo atall.
My mom has Saudi Arabian rootsand my father worked there his
whole life.
I grew up my whole entire life18 years in Jeddah and Saudi
(01:36):
Arabia.
I'm Egyptian.
I'm very much an Egyptian woman.
I love, love, love.
Being from Egypt, basically, Iwasn't very connected to Egypt
at all throughout my childhoodand that's how my obsession with
(02:00):
Seyhel began as a child.
But it was Seyhel Tayeb and tothis day, shout out Virginia
Beach.
To this day it's like my heavenand thank God my parents never
sold their childhood home and,to be honest with you, it is for
me my happy place.
It's the place that I go backto and feel the most myself.
I am a very, very creativeperson.
(02:23):
I've always been a creativeperson.
I've been obsessed withmagazines since I was a kid.
I would do collages and I wouldcut up little bits of magazines
and I would kind of create myown little world.
I took IGCSCs and then IB and myfavorite subject in IB was art
and my second favorite subjectwas English.
(02:44):
I was a mega nerd in school.
The perfect balance between you.
Know.
I wasn't like hanging out withthe cool kids but at the same
time I wasn't hanging out withlike the ones that were like
super introverted.
I always hung out witheverybody.
I went to the cool parties.
I studied in breaks with thenerds.
I tutored.
I did a lot of different things.
(03:07):
What I can say about growing upin Saudi Arabia is that the
school I went to really shapedwho I am.
It was called the BritishInternational School of Jeddah
Conti, so for the Egyptians it'slike the bisque of Saudi, but
at the time it was one of thetop rated schools in the world
and I credit my school forseriously teaching me how to
think.
Ib was such a challenge to thepoint where when I finished IB
(03:32):
and I was predicted 40 somethingmajor nerd I was supposed to go
to London.
I did a last minute decision tocome to Cairo because I wanted
to reconnect with my Egyptianroots.
Can you guys imagine I wantedto reconnect with my Egyptian
roots.
Can you guys imagine?
(03:53):
Another amazing thing about myschool is that I had friends and
still do, alhamdulillah fromall walks of life.
So everyone from America toAustralia, to Spain, to Lebanon,
to Syria, to Saudi Arabia, ofcourse, to literally every
country you can think of.
We had someone at school fromthat country and we used to have
(04:16):
something called internationalday.
International day that can bewhat in our cultures would come.
Dressed in our culture, I wouldalways dress as a pharaoh.
You know, you guys know myobsession with Nefertiti.
If you've been following me, Igo to Berlin specifically to
just see her.
But anyway, I would dress as apharaoh and you would bring food
(04:39):
from your culture.
You would talk to people, wewould sing our cultural songs,
speak our languages, and it justenriched you with cultures from
all around the world.
It instilled in us values thatI use to this day, of unity,
diversity, acceptance.
We always talk about thesetopics in school and it made me
(05:00):
feel that there is no judgment.
I do not judge anybody for whatthey choose to do in their life,
and that, I think, is one ofthe keys that made me a
successful person in my job,which is a podcaster, an
interviewer, a journalist, aperson who needs to be curious
in their work about not just mylife but other people's lives.
(05:22):
I always ask questions, Ialways ask questions.
My grandfather used to say Iwould ask a million and one
questions as a kid, and theywere like questions that were
way beyond my years.
But, like I said, I was intoart, into fashion, into writing,
and all of that came tofruition when I moved to Egypt.
I went to AUC and I didarchitecture for a year because
(05:45):
I also have a deep obsessionwith design, interior design,
buildings, homeware, etc.
But for me, this is not reallymy calling.
What I like to do is tellstories and communicate.
I switched to Mascan, which wasthe perfect decision for me, and
I studied that for a couple ofyears, went to UCLA, studied
public relations, publicspeaking and, as well, film, and
(06:09):
graduated after three years atAUC.
Because, truly, guys, ib mademe skip like two semesters.
That's how crazy that programis.
And so, yeah, I mean like inthe end, I think moving to Egypt
was the best decision I evermade in my entire life.
Why didn't you go to London?
Why would you move to Egypt?
(06:29):
All of this, and I honestlythink, guys, you need to be
connected to your country andyour culture somehow, and I
think it changed who I am, itchanged the course of my life
and it created a space for me tothrive, because when I started
my platform in 2018, I called itRadical, contemporary.
At the time, for the OGs, itreally was something completely
(06:53):
radical and contemporary.
No one was writing about theyoung creatives in the region.
No one had an expansive network, which is Gulf people and
people in Dubai and people inCairo and my dad's family is
also half Emirati, so I had abig connection there as well and
I expanded this over the yearsand so it kind of built a
(07:16):
platform that was a first moverin so many things in the way I
talked, in the way I presentedmyself, in an unapologetic
manner with which I sort of kindof spoke to the audience in
Arabic, in English and in allthe languages I usually use in
the day, right, a little bit ofFrench, a little bit of French
(07:36):
guys, not a lot, a little bit.
But I felt that at the time,wow, I couldn't believe the
reception.
It was fantastic.
And I did Radical for a fewyears and I did everything, guys
.
I was a stylist, creativedirector, producer, writer every
role you can imagine.
I appeared in Harper's Bazaar,elle, vogue, forbes, interviewed
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over 150 people of the top, top, top, top, top individuals in
the region, really fulfilled somany of my dreams, you know,
wrote for all of these magazinesas well, not just featured in
them, and it was just such awild ride.
And then I think last year Iwas like you know what I've done
everything I wanted to do withthis platform.
I think it's time to pivot andso I renamed it and rebranded it
(08:21):
the Curation, because I thinkmy first and last love in life
is picking and selecting andediting the best art, fashion,
literature, design, ideas andpresenting it to you guys.
This is what I love to do and Ithink, honestly, we are in the
era of curation.
If you can't pick and chooseand edit and maintain the
(08:45):
character of who you are andkind of like curate your own
character in life these days,you're really going to be
completely lost, because in theage of AI and technology, I mean
, we're being fed who to be, andso if you don't select it
yourself, if you don't follow ityourself, if you don't follow
creators who are selective withthe content that they present to
you, you're going to be introuble of kind of like being a
(09:07):
copy paste which I talk about alot of everyone else and the
winners in this world, they'rethe ones who are going to be
able to stick to who they are,and so I always like to say that
I am a person who is niche.
I don't want to be mass market.
I am for those who get it, forthe intellectuals and the girls
who want to be smart and alsokind of take care of themselves.
(09:29):
Why not try to do both?
I'll tell you more about myPilates journey on a different
video, because it's a completelydifferent and parallel story in
my life that involves myjourney with scoliosis and many
other things that I want to talkabout separately.
But in terms of my childhood,my upbringing and sort of like,
how I built my brand, that's whoI am, and I definitely will do
(09:56):
a more personal Get to know meon me as Noor, but I hope this
gave you guys a little bit ofinsight into the curation, how
it came about, and right now Ilive in Cairo, but I'm between
here and Dubai and Saudi and Igo around interviewing people
who I think are actuallyextraordinary.
So follow the curation podcast,stay tuned, and I hope you
(10:20):
liked my get to know me.
Get ready with me.
All right, guys, I'm gonnaanswer some of the questions
that I got from you on Instagram.
Okay, so a day in the life Ithink I'm gonna do a video for
this one.
The day in the life I think I'mgoing to do a video for this
one.
The day in the life in generalis something that is really hard
(10:43):
for me to film because everysingle day is kind of different,
but in general, what I do liketo do, like I always say in my
episodes, is wake up early atleast once a week, but I don't
wake up early every day.
I definitely would recommendthe seven step fall reset, glow
up guide and that kind of willshow you, not a day in the life
(11:07):
but at least in a month, thetools and the strategies that I
use to kind of try my best tostay on it.
Okay, all right, favoritewellness beauty ritual, I would
say at the moment it's Gua Sha,because I know that a lot of
people don't believe in Gua Sha.
But guys, gua Sha is lifechanging.
Like, think about it.
You work out the muscles ofyour entire body and you never
really work out the muscles ofyour face.
Gua Sha, for me, is top tier.
(11:30):
I'm very into it right now andit's the wellness ritual that
really I'm really, reallyenjoying.
I'm very into it right now andit's the wellness ritual that
really I'm really, reallyenjoying.
Okay, what's the part of beingwhat?
Oh, what's the hardest part ofbeing an entrepreneur podcaster?
The hardest part is that you'reyour own boss.
It's 1000% your choice and thisis really, I think, the
(11:53):
toughest challenge.
Sometimes I wish I had a nineto five and someone to tell me
when to clock in and clock out,but the hardest part of being an
entrepreneur is that.
The hardest part of being apodcaster is in.
Definitely, you can drain yoursocial battery very quickly.
You talk a lot, whether to thecamera, to other people, to
(12:16):
whatever.
It's very much a job where youneed to pour in your own cup in
order to be able to give toothers.
Okay, what's a habit thatcompletely changed my life?
I really do think it is thewaking up early, once a week at
least.
It's one of those habits that Ijust can't.
I cannot find something better.
(12:38):
I wish I could do it every dayand, to be honest, maybe one day
I'll get there, and I have inthe past done that.
But I think that's the biggestone.
And I think the second biggestone habit that has changed my
life would be not to drinkcoffee first thing in the
morning.
For sure.
Delay coffee intake and, yeah,have something to eat, drink
(13:00):
anything else.
I have my detox tea here.
It's from royal.
It's a brand in cairo that Ireally like and it's like it's
just called detox.
Drink anything before yourcoffee.
You guys, it's way better foryou.
Okay, what's something you'recurrently obsessed with, like a
book, a brand, etc.
I think I'm currently obsessedwith my makeup by mario blush
(13:20):
stick.
It's like insane as somethingthat I'm obsessed with.
I'm also obsessed with my b5laroche haya.
It's called haya lu seruminsane, guys, it's such a good
serum Obsessed.
And a book that I'm currentlyobsessed with.
I'm not really obsessed with abook right now, but I would say
(13:41):
I mean, obviously, power byRobert Greene is always the book
that I ultimately think is thebest thing you could read in
your life.
Basically, okay.
Last question what's one thingpeople would be surprised to
learn about you?
I think one thing people wouldbe surprised to learn about you
I think one thing people wouldbe surprised to learn about me
is that I am not the most um,don't know like, I'm not the
(14:07):
most social person you'll evermeet in your life, but I am a
social butterfly.
But I'm also Libra, so I gothrough phases where I can
socialize for hours and days,but I definitely do need to like
get back into my shell and andI love being alone.
I love it more than anythingbecause I am an intellectual, I
(14:28):
like to read.
I like to think, I like tostrategize.
So, yeah, I don't know.
I think people would besurprised to learn that, but I
think it works well for my joband the structure of what I have
to do.
Thank you for listening.
Make sure to follow at theCuration Podcast on Instagram,
at Noor Hassan and at Pilates byNoor to stay tuned on all of
(14:52):
the content that is available,as well as the Curation podcast
on all podcasting platforms andthe Curation on TikTok.