One Arab Girl Experience A Sign; The Story of ARABGIRLWITHSIGN
“I feel like most Arab girls go through similar situations when it comes to their social life, dealing with situations and just day-to-day activities. That’s why this page is exciting to have; I can draw inspiration from everyone around me, as well as point out things that I do.”
As a Palestinian-Lebanese girl who grew up
in Jordan, arabgirlwithsign was able to capture the essence of Arab girls’
lives everywhere and share it with the world. Above is a quote of her answer
when asked about her inspiration behind her project where she posts pictures of
herself carrying a sign with phrases that every Arab girl can relate to on
personal levels!
Arabgirlwithsign started her creative
journey back in university where she studied fashion marketing, she’s currently
in between job and uses her free time for her project as it pushes the creative
inside of her to think of new topics to tackle with each new sign.
After seeing dudewithsign’s Instagram account,
arabgirlwithsign liked the idea and decided to make it her own by making an account that revolves around the Arab girl experience and named it accordingly.
“I did the first sign for my friends, but I kept the account public and, the
next day, I woke up to hundreds of followers because they posted it on their
stories and it just kept growing!” Arabgirlwithsign was in shock at the
feedback and kept going for the fun in it and made more signs, and with every
new sign came in even more new followers!
“I think that this is the key to the success of this page; it wasn’t planned, it just happened organically.”
As for hiding her face, she says it wasn’t
planned. When arabgirlwithsign took the first picture, she tried multiple
angels and the one she liked the most had her face covered by the sign.
However, she went on with it as it added to the buzz; Arabs are known to love
knowing everything about everyone (and if you don’t believe that, read the chat
of sfts’ cofounders -mariam, jana, fareeda and I- on any day and you’ll believe
it) and so she doesn’t plan on showing her face anytime soon! *😉*
As for her most awkward encounter,
arabgirlwithsign says that it was when she was holding the sign on the aeroplane,
she was also wearing a facemask and people kept staring at her. Other times,
however, people would ask her about what she’s doing and she’ll explain her
project while showing them her account.
When asked about what she’ll do if she runs
out of ideas for the sign, arabgirlwithsign said, “that’s the beauty of having
this page under ‘arabgirlwithsign;’ I don’t think I’ll ever run out of content,
I can just look at my family members or friends for ideas!”
Lastly, we will share with you a quote from
her about her vision of the future of the Arab community,
“There is definitely hope, change is happening, but it’s slow and that’s why it could be frustrating sometimes. I, also, think that it is important for young adults to voice their pains and start working towards the change that they want to see.”
In conclusion, arabgirlwithsign might be a
light satire project to document the Arab girl experience that we all go
through or witness, it’s the reality we all live. And this is what makes it
such a trend; it’s personal yet relatable, it’s something for the collective
and, on top of all of that, it’s an arabgirlwithsign.