Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Farah Nizam. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Farah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

In 2016, my business was so new that I barely understood the sales platform for my online shop. I had painted a few dolls for friends of family and any advertising at that point was primarily through word of mouth. So imagine my surprise when I remembered to check my business email – set up on a whim late one night – to see a message from the Arab American National Museum expressing their interest in stocking my dolls for their museum gift shop!

I’ll never forget that afternoon at the park, sitting in the shade from the scorching Georgia sun and reading the email over and over again, trying to process the words in front of me. My children were in all corners of the playground and I didn’t know if I should jump up and down celebrating, call for my kids or just leave. Instead I sat there in shock and disbelief. And to be honest, a fair amount of trepidation.

My kids got extra time at the park that day, as it took me a long time to accept that my humble, little wooden dolls would now be out in the “real” world. Seen by people I have no mutual connections to, curated by museum employees that certainly would have seen better work. Imposter syndrome set in hard and heavy. At some point the playground grew quieter and the sun began to set. I looked at my young children playing in front of me: shades of brown and flowing head scarves. So innocent and unaware of what they represent in a world where they don’t blend in with the crowd. Where they will likely always be seen as ‘the other’. They inspired my business and I was ready to celebrate this win for them and with them .

Farah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Having been and raised in Duluth, Georgia, I never saw anyone that looked like me. I spent most of my youth trying to change and hide who I was in order to fit in, something I regret now. It wasn’t until years later while attending Georgia State University that I had the fortunate experience to be surrounded by a beautifully diverse community. It was there that I finally had a support system in a wonderful group of friends and grew in my faith and identity. Eventually, I married, moved around, even living abroad. But eventually found myself right back here in Duluth, raising my own children. And although Duluth has changed for the better in a lot of ways, I never want my children to feel the need to hide their identity, or even worse, feel ashamed of it.

As a homeschooling family, we are always crafting or working on some project. It was one day while playing with wooden peg dolls, one of my children asked me to paint them to look like “mommy and daddy”. It struck me that for the first time, I could make a toy that looked like us! I immediately painted a set of dolls with hijabs (headscarves), niqaabs (face veils), long beards, kuffis (Islamic skull caps) and in all shades of skin tones. My daughter was playing with a brown doll wearing a hijab, and this blew my mind. I never could have even dreamed of something like that growing up and to be represented in this way is simply amazing.

It didn’t take longs for friends and family to request dolls that looked like their own families and before long I opened up an Etsy shop. For the past six years, I’ve had the distinct pleasure of helping to promote diversity and representation in children’s toys. I’ve since branched out to include Arabic learning toys, wooden mosques and DIY craft kits. From the very beginning of this journey, my business was created with my own children in mind. How could I help them feel proud of their identity? How can I make them feel represented in the world around them? I’ve learned that when I stray from that initial vision, then things become muddled and confused. It is for that reason I try and involve my own children in almost every single business decision. I honestly feel that this is the key to my success. They are my market research and product testers. I have literally scrapped ideas that didn’t earn their seal of approval. After all, I am doing this for them and for the millions of underrepresented and overlooked children, so they never feel a need to hide their true identities.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’m not ashamed of the humble beginnings of my business. Little Muslim Dolls essentially started off as a homeschooling craft that took off to be so much more. By the third year business was booming. I was inundated with orders, in-person events, collaboration requests and more. My days were full with online meetings, painting and shipping orders. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the sole reason I began this business, was the one thing I was neglecting the most : my children. I had to think long and hard about my goals and priorities in life and for me personally, I made the decision to step back from many projects and take things slow. I restricted work calls and meetings to certain days of the week and even closed my shop during holidays. Its easy as a small business owner to let work take over your life. To creep into your private moments, cross boundaries and end up consuming all you have. After years of spending sleepless nights painting and , it was strange to take things slow again. But it helped me relearn my priorities and why I even started painting to begin with.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I am not a tech savvy person and I really resisted the idea of the more popular social media platforms. I’m a private and shy person by nature and social media seemed geared towards the opposite personality type. It was only after guidance and help from a fellow small business owner that I opened an Instagram account and made my first post. I spent those first few weeks trying to copy other influencers and business role models. I tried to use their style of captions or post similar content. It all felt fake and very forced. I even stopped posting all together. I couldn’t figure out how these new medium would benefit me or my business. And then one day I went out to eat with my family and as my kids were getting restless waiting on their food, I pulled out a couple Little Muslim Dolls from my purse to keep them entertained. I snapped a quick pic and posted it online with the caption “always keep a few dolls in your purse, you never know when you’re gonna need them!” and bam, the likes started to roll in. It was a grainy picture with bad lighting, but it was authentic. Other mothers could relate and I started to make connections with other mothers and potential customers. It was a good lesson in authenticity and I try to go back to that moment when I’m in a social media rut. My advice to new businesses would be to stay true to yourself and your brand. Everything online is posed and edited, but thats not relatable. Your target audience wants to know the real person behind the brand, not just a set of editing tools!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.LittleMuslimDolls.etsy.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/LittleMuslimDolls
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/MuslimDolls