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Selma Omari
© Niels Zweekhorst
The Netherlands’ very first YouTube star with a Moroccan background is Selma Omari from the Rotterdam working-class district Crooswijk. on Instagram she has more than half a million followers, on YouTube 125,000. Besides vlogging, she is also working on a musical career. Hair latest single Quicksand appeared early last month.
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She makes herself heard, not only about typical influencer topics such as fashion and style, but also about social issues. In addition to appreciation, this also generates a wave of hatred for her. Meanwhile, she dreams of building her own empire, just like her great examples do in the US.
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On BNNVARA an extensive story about the documentary that Wouter Vogel made about her: “Omari storms the sky but continues to be confronted with begrudgers. Muslim boys in the neighborhood think she can’t make it as a Muslim, as defiant as she dresses, as much of her body as she shows. And there are also criticisms from other corners of the neighborhood: she is thinking too much, what is she thinking? It’s part of her life. And that’s how she and creator Wouter Vogel both wanted it to be. As real as it is. The highs and the lows. Where she comes from, where she is now and where she wants to go. Omari is happy with the result.”
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Yasmina Aboutaleb reviews the documentary in De Volkskrant: “The film portrays Omari as a feminist, someone who leads the way in the struggle for emancipation and against prejudices that someone with her background has to deal with almost every day. Omari seems afraid of nothing and no one (you can get the girl out of Crooswijk, but not Crooswijk out of the girl) and also doesn’t care about conventions. You could call that feminist, but it’s just as much a side effect of who Selma is, a woman born with a battering ram in one hand and a pair of pumps in the other.”
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