The two 14-year-olds are both on the edge of major breakthroughs: Martin is the Black-ish star-turned youngest executive producer of a film in history (for the upcoming Little, that she also stars in). Meanwhile, Parker is building on the legacy of her award-winning actress mother Thandie Newton with a co-starring role in Disney’s Tim Burton-directed live action remake of Dumbo, Teen Vogue reports.

Coincidentally, both Marsai and Nico grew up with a similar familiarity with Hollywood and the way the entertainment industry works.  She was 10 when she first pitched the idea for the movie to Universal, as a reversal of the Tom Hanks‘ classic Big, which was her mom’s favorite movie at the time. In February 2019, her company, Genius Productions, which she founded in 2017, signed a first-look deal with Universal for her scripted projects, according to Teen Vogue.

Dumbo features Nico as Milly Farrier, an aspiring scientist who sees Dumbo for the magical being he is, instead of as a freak or a series of dollar signs. Milly is both an adventurer and a caring, stabilizing presence for her unstable family; she’s quietly the catalyst for the whole movie’s sequence of events. It’s her and her younger brother’s patience and critical-thinking skills that save Dumbo’s life and the life of his mother.

Marsai shares an important message with the world: “Don’t count the kids out.”

Photo Credit: Teen Vogue

Her story is truly an inspiring one. The 20-year-old beauty went from living in a refugee camp with her family in Kenya, to becoming a high-profile, barrier-smashing model who has graced the covers of Vogue Arabia, Allure, and Glamour.  She is also the first hijabi model to sign with top modeling agency IMG, compete in the Miss Minnesota pageant and walk the runways in New York and Milan while wearing a hijab.

We’re so inspired by her story, and we hope it gives you some inspiration to strive for greater heights, whatever your situation may be. We’ve gathered a few excerpts from the Teen Vogue feature, as follows…

Background

Halima’s village was burned to the ground in 1992 during the Somali Civil War, forcing her family to relocate to Kakuma. They left the camp to immigrate to the U.S. in 2004 when she was 7 years old, settling first in St. Louis, and eventually in St. Cloud, Minnesota. When she arrived in the U.S. with her mother and younger brother, Halima was just seven years old.

Becoming an American Citizen

In her short life she has become an American citizen, a high school homecoming queen, and a popular model. However, she still stays true to her religious values, despite living in the Western world. For instance, she always travels with a female chaperone, so as not to be alone with men as an unmarried and observant Muslim.

When Halima entered the U.S. with her mother and brother (later joined by her sister), they quickly realized that the St. Louis school system was ill-equipped to meet the needs of a child who spoke limited English. Halima was in the first grade. “I went to school every day and didn’t learn a thing,” she says. “They didn’t have any ESOL or ELL, so everyday I went and just sat there.” She was miserable. Desperate, her mother reached out to friends and family for advice, and the family decided to move to St. Cloud, where the Somali community already had a foothold.

As soon as she relocated, Halima began to flourish.

How She was Discovered

In September 2016, a young Somali man in her town carried out a number of stabbings at a local mall. The Somali Students Association at SCSU rallied together to publicly condemn the violence, which Halima says felt necessary at the time, but believes was a difficult and unfair position for her community to be in. “It’s hard because I’ve caught myself apologizing multiple times for stuff that I had nothing to do with. Because he was Somali, the entire community had to come out and apologize and condemn his actions,” she says.

During the rally, a baby named Jayse was playing with Halima’s hijab, tugging on it. She didn’t shoo the baby away, instead indulging his curiosity. A picture of them made it into the paper, and went viral when a state senator shared it. The Huffington Post came calling for comment, and when they interviewed her they spotted a brochure on her kitchen table for the Miss Minnesota pageant. Halima, then 19, said she wanted to compete. The journalists wanted to know what she would wear, so she told them she planned to wear her hijab (and later, she would also decide to wear a burkini for the swimsuit portion).

That was enough for the outlet to change the focus of the story from the anti-violence rally to Halima as the first contestant wearing a hijab in the pageant. She did not advance to the final round but placed as a semifinalist, but when the HuffPost video dropped and different outlets picked up the story, Halima was told that Carine Roitfeld, legendary editor of CR Fashion Book, was interested in her. Roitfeld flew her out to shoot for the cover of the magazine. From there, she was signed to IMG, an elite international model management agency.

“Growing up, I never saw magazine articles painting Muslim women in a positive light. In fact, if I saw an article about someone who looked like me, it would be the complete opposite.”

For the publication’s cover shoot, Halima returned to Kakuma, Kenya, to the refugee camp she used to live in, and it was an epic yet emotional visit for her.

Halima’s story shows us that in order to get to your intended destination in life, you must remember where you come from, and embrace your journey in it’s entirety.

Read more about her Teen Vogue feature here. 

Photo Credit: Teen Vogue | Scandebergs