World famous beauty, fashion and pop culture publication SHE Magazine USA is going digital in 2021 and looks to shift their focus to celebrating unsung heroes. While they will still feature stories about celebrities, models, and influencers, SHE Magazine USA is about to use their global reach to shine a light on powerful women who would otherwise go unnoticed. This change in direction all stems from their CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Beena Yusuf, and her own inspiring journey.
Beena manifested her dream life. At a young age, she wrote down in a notebook that she will one day walk a runway, despite being told she was not tall enough or pretty enough. But it was not easy being young Beena, though outspoken and a dreamer, she was often bullied in middle/high school. Having a foreign name and different features, she would come home from school in tears. Not letting her parents know, she would hide in her mother’s closet, where a stack of beautiful magazines was kept that she would marvel through and find solace in.
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This magazine was called SHE, a high profile publication that is originally from the UK and born to Hearst Publication in 1954. The women featured in the magazine were beautiful, powerful, and elegant. Little did young Beena know, she would own this magazine 20+ years later.
Beena thought she would end up in medical school, and her dreams of owning a magazine or walking a runway would be just a distant fantasy, when she had the epiphany that this life isn’t for her. Beena was drawn to another calling, she just didn’t know what it was yet. After moving to dream destination Dubai with her husband, Beena landed an amazing job with the US State Department there and had seemingly achieved all of her life goals. Right? But something was still missing.
Beena was drawn to how elegant and majestic women in her culture looked without exposing themselves and began designing her own “bishts” or capes, an elegant gown that is worn by Middle Eastern women. Her designs modernized the traditional garment and Beena’s husband knew that she needed to give this a real shot. So this husband of the year candidate got all of her designs made as a surprise and encouraged Beena to post about them on social media.
Beena was floored when she saw her designs come to life and the response on social media was just as enthusiastic. Thousands of likes and comments started pouring in and eventually Pakistan Fashion Week reached out. Beena’s fashion line B. Poshi was a huge hit and completely stole the show when models took to the runway with her clothes as Run The World by Beyoncé blasted in the background. Immediately after the show, high profile clients including the members of the Dubai Royal Family were buying all of Beena’s pieces at insane prices.
After seeing the success of Beena building this fashion brand from the ground up and catching attention internationally, SHE Magazine Official reached out to Beena (Yes! The same SHE Magazine young Beena would engulf herself in her mom’s closet) and asked her to take over the publication in America. A few months later she became the CEO and Editor of SHE Magazine USA. A dream she thought just for the dreamers, was now brought to life.
Beena took SHE Magazine USA to new heights by covering high profile models/influencers and featuring celebrities on her covers that brought the mag to new audiences like Shah’s of Sunset, Bravo’s Project Runway and Audrey Hepburn’s granddaughter, Emma Hepburn.
But all of this came to a grinding halt when last October Beena’s parents found out her younger brother’s heart had stopped in his sleep and he had fallen into a coma. The doctors said he wouldn’t survive, and if he did, he’d never live a meaningful life. A nightmare that one could never imagine happening to a young, heathy guy. Against all odds, Beena’s brother is alive today, completely coherent, and is able to communicate with everyone. Still non-verbal and immobile, but has the willpower of iron man and struggling everyday to come back to his life. After having spent the majority of last year taking care of her younger brother who has always been one of Beena’s biggest supporters, Beena knew what she had to do with SHE Magazine USA.
The strength Beena realized she had after the ordeals life put her through showed her that she is finally that hero she was looking for in the pages of SHE Magazine when she was a child. And these heroes are everywhere, we just don’t hear about them all the time.
Beena shared with us:
“We are so excited about what SHE Magazine USA is going to do in 2021. The types of stories we are going to cover, the topics we will discuss and just making sure that every woman out there is reminded that they aren’t alone. That if you are different or look a certain way or life has just been really unfair to you, that you are still powerful and still beautiful. That they matter and the world would not exist without them. I had people remind me of my greatness this year, when I wanted to give up on my dream, because of well…life, now I want to be a vessel for other women and provide a larger than life platform to make their voices heard. SHE Magazine will aim to do just that.”
She Magazine USA will drop its first fall cover in January of 2021. You can stay up to date with the publication HERE.
[Image via Fame by Sheeraz]