Marriam Mossalli will be one of the speakers for the Invisible Haters panel at the ITP Live 2021 Conference – ‘The Power of Female Influence’on March 30, 2021. Mossalli will be joined by Layla Kardan and Raha Moharrak to discuss cyberbullying, online harassment, and unrealistic beauty standards on social media.
Mossalli is the founder of Niche Arabia, Saudi Arabia’s premier luxury communications agency, which has developed award-winning strategies across the GCC for some of the world’s most recognizable brands. She is also the author of Under the Abaya, the first-ever Saudi street style book, with all proceeds of the initiative going toward academic scholarships for underprivileged women in Saudi. Notably – Mossalli is a contributing editor at Harper’s Bazaar Arabia and is the only Saudi national on the prestigious Business of Fashion 500 list.
Prior to the conference, Mossalli sits down with ITP Live to exclusively discuss her journey founding Niche Arabia, her inspiration for her book Under the Abaya, and a small teaser on her experience with online hate.
Can you explain your journey founding Niche Arabia? When did you found the company and what gap did you notice in the market?
“I started off in journalism: back in 2008, I was just a young editor at Arab news – copying and pasting from international wires. What I really wanted to do was cover my own stories and build my own narratives. While at the newspaper – I noticed that international brands had no idea who the Saudi female consumer really was. At the time – there was no company in that market helping them understand the Saudi female demographic.
At 25 years old – with only 3 years of job experience under my belt – I left the newspaper to start my own company. It’s always hard as an entrepreneur to take that gamble, but I knew I would be first to the market. 10 years later – Niche Arabia is Saudi’s premier luxury consulting agency.
Taking that risk is something most women won’t do. But we need to normalize it. There’s actually a study that found that the more women saw other women in these entrepreneurial roles – the more likely they would take that risk. There needs to be more women showing that it can be done”.
What challenges [if any] did you face while growing your company? Were there any dark moments or failures throughout this process – and how did you learn from it?
“In the beginning, the thought of me – a mere 25 year old – becoming someone’s boss was an extremely scary thought: it meant that I was responsible for their livelihood. Mentally – it was a huge responsibility. Even today – I struggle with when to be an employer and when to be a friend. When you run a small company with a team of 14 people – it is really easy to get emotionally involved. For example, I’ve kept on an employee longer than I should because I had a soft spot for them.
That’s the struggle with being a girl boss: emotions. There’s always that fine line between collaboration and being besties – and it is hard to tiptoe.
I’d say my other big challenge was learning when to say no. Thankfully, we always had a big influx of clients: I had to learn how to be strategic with my choices and to not bite off more than I could chew”.
Do you think your experience as a female founder differed in any way from your male counterparts?
“I think there’s an expectation that females should work like males: but we have a different approach to work. Because we are put into this environment, female founders feel the need to make themselves both feared and respected: we don’t want to seem soft, especially in a male-dominated industry like luxury. I also feel like women are more naturally apologetic: over the years, I’ve learned that I don’t need to apologize to anyone. As a female, we need to learn this confidence.
Moreover – as a woman – I believe I did have a few key advantages over men: the biggest one was in building relationships and partnerships with clients. Men are naturally more competitive and are more inclined to undercut someone for their own gain. Women are more collaborative creatures and building that trust with clients was very easy for me compared to a man”.
Who was your first client at Niche Arabia? How did you grow your clientele list and eventually work with big name clients such as Uber and Dior?
“My first retainer client was Harvey Nichols Riyadh. When I started Niche Arabia, I leveraged the network I built from my journalism career. I had access to big clients like Christian Louboutin and Burberry: it wasn’t hard. Again – my company was the first to market. Not only did we target the female Saudi consumer, but our team was the demographic itself”.
So – you’re the author of Under the Abaya – the first-ever Saudi Street Style Book: can you explain your journey of when you decided to write the book and why?
“When I spoke at events – I was always asked the same questions: for example, why my hair wasn’t covered. There are so many misconceptions about Saudi women in western media. In 2018, I was invited to the Misk Art Institute in Jeddah to participate in the first Art Books Fair: I felt like it was the perfect moment to come out with a Saudi Street Style book to show outsiders that there’s a huge high-fashion scene in Saudi and that the women are more than their Abaya.
I posted about the initiative on Instagram: within weeks I got thousands of submissions from Saudi women to participate ”.
All proceeds of your book go towards academic scholarships for underprivileged women in Saudi. Are there any particularly inspiring stories of an underprivileged woman in Saudi who achieved some degree of success due to academic scholarships raised by proceeds from your book?
“Yes – Niche Arabia collaborated with the Future Institute of Higher Education in Jeddah to offer academic photography scholarships at the institute. We wanted to select the top 5 candidates: the top two would receive a 1-year scholarship while the other three would receive a discounted rate.
We had a short list of 7 females to choose from. A 42-year old woman showed up: her son had driven her there. She told me that her son was waiting – so she couldn’t take too long – but she wanted to show her kids that dreams have no age limit and it’s never too late to achieve them. At that time – women were not allowed to drive. This woman – despite all odds – got here for this interview. I immediately chose her”.
So you’re obviously speaking on our Invisible Hater’s panel for our ITP Live 2021 Conference: can you give a brief teaser/overview of some of the hate you have faced online and via social media?
“On social media – I never put my physical self on there. I make it all about my captions. As a result, I’ve been attacked on an intellectual level – and not on my physical appearance. I fight off haters in the comments by using my words: they’ll tell me I’m wrong and I convince them why I am not.
Moreover, I think accountability is something we need to normalize on social media. People online need to understand that they are talking to another human being when they make some of these comments. Don’t comment something that you wouldn’t have the courage to say to someone’s face.
I don’t hide behind a screen name. And no one else should either”.
If you are interested in hearing Marriam Mossalli discuss online hate more in depth, RSVP for in-person or online attendance to the ITP Live 2021 Conference here.