Amena Khan and Hijab: Creative Work, Visibility and Personal Choice

Amena Khan's public story raises a question that reaches beyond a particular scarf style: what happens when someone you enjoy watching becomes a person you look to for reassurance about your own place in the world?

A beauty tutorial can offer a useful technique. A familiar face can make a creative career feel imaginable. A personal announcement can prompt questions that the person making it never intended to answer for everybody else. Those experiences deserve a more thoughtful account than a simple story of inspiration, success or disappointment.

This retrospective follows Khan's early creative work, public appearances and conversations about hijab through interviews, event records and research. It considers the years leading to her 2020 announcement that she had stopped wearing a headscarf, alongside later analysis of the response. The interest lies in what she actually said and did, how particular people responded, and what readers can take from that history while keeping their own convictions and choices in view.

Her story is most revealing when its different parts remain visible: a creator learning her craft, a business owner, a participant in beauty campaigns, and a woman whose public image could never contain her whole life.

From a tutorial to a creative business

In Wolipop's 2015 interview, Khan traced her first hijab tutorial to October 2009. She had been a primary-school science teacher and was on maternity leave. The video was intended to demonstrate a scarf arrangement to her sister-in-law and friends; she uploaded it to YouTube because the file was too large to email.

Other viewers then asked for more tutorials. She recorded, edited and uploaded the videos herself. Her account starts with one person explaining something she knew, then learning to share it with a wider audience.

She also described producing two videos each week, alongside running her hijab business.

A design shaped by a particular idea

In a January 2012 interview with Mosaic of Muslim Women, Khan described her Hoojab as a scarf with a hood at one end and additional cloth for different arrangements. She said she began selling it after requests from viewers, around a month after she started uploading videos.

By that interview, she reported a team of eight, with some sewing done within the business and some outsourced. She also spoke about the Facebook page as a place where women shared interests and offered support. These details belong to that early period, rather than describing the business today.

She was also developing clothing and accessories, describing these as work in progress rather than established parts of the range.

Her advice to aspiring business owners included listening to customers and employees, keeping integrity and treating people fairly throughout the business relationship. She described her faith as an encouragement to contribute positively, and hoped her work would offer younger women an example to consider. Design, production, conversation and responsibility were already present together in how she explained her work.

What one viewer found useful

A 2013 post by Minara El-Rahman on Hijabi Life offers a small, personal example of reception. El-Rahman described enjoying Khan's approachable manner and interactions with viewers. More specifically, she said the tutorials had helped her feel better about a pashmina arrangement on herself and had given her ideas for special occasions. She also hoped to meet Khan in person, distinguishing her experience of watching from a personal meeting.

That is an identifiable reader describing a particular benefit. It does not establish how every follower felt, but it does show a kind of usefulness that audience totals cannot explain: somebody found a way to enjoy clothing she had felt less comfortable styling.

The modest scale is part of the value of the account. Influence need not always mean changing a life or transforming an industry. Sometimes a woman feels a little more at ease with something already in her wardrobe. Her own description of that experience deserves to stand without being inflated into a universal promise.

The creative thought behind a fold

Researcher Ruxandra E. Todosi visited Khan's Leicester workshop in July 2013. In her Nottingham Trent University doctoral thesis, submitted in 2014, she records a discussion of design, drape and the meanings Khan attached to her work. Khan spoke about movement and the emotional possibilities of cloth.

Todosi's account also describes preparations for a collection launch alongside the interview. It places the poetic language of design beside the tasks involved in running a working studio. The relevant discussion appears in the thesis's section on Amena and Pearl Daisy, particularly on printed pages 247 and 249.

The study records her preference for fluid materials, including viscose, jersey and cotton mixes, as part of the effect she wanted to create. This gives the scarf a creative history beyond its appearance on screen. A fold can be an experiment with movement; a fabric choice can support an imagined effect. Those were Khan's explanations at that time. They are useful for understanding her approach, without treating her personal associations as meanings every wearer must share.

A footnote connects the name Daisy with her affection for The Great Gatsby.

A British creator in a wider conversation

At London's Alchemy festival at the Southbank Centre on 23 May 2015, Khan joined a discussion about blogging and YouTube alongside Lord Aleem and Planet Parle, hosted by Noreen Khan. DESIblitz's report from the event records conversation about creative opportunity, audience attachment and the difficulties of public exposure.

Khan acknowledged that negative attention could come with the work. The report also interviewed an audience member, Yunus Nas, who said the discussion had encouraged him to consider a channel about greener technology. That response concerned the panel as a whole, rather than proving an effect attributable to one speaker.

The panel paired her beauty work with Aleem’s motoring videos and Parle’s Gujarati comedy. The setting matters. Khan was participating in a conversation about British Asian creativity and making media. Her headscarf remained visible, while the shared professional questions included how to begin, how to reach people and how to manage being recognised. It was one public context in which she could be understood through her work.

Meeting an audience in Indonesia

Later that month, designer Dian Pelangi invited Khan to Sisterhood 2015 in Jakarta. In Wolipop's interview with the organiser, Pelangi described an event bringing together designers, boutique owners, bloggers and other participants. She discussed both social connection and reaching an audience across Asia.

The event took place at Kota Kasablanka on 30 May, with a bazaar, talks and fashion presentations. Khan's invitation belonged within a gathering that had cultural, social and commercial purposes at once. Pelangi described 2015 as the event’s fourth year and recalled inviting international guests previously. Pelangi was bringing an established audience together with a visitor whose work some already followed.

Keeping the organiser's account in view makes the exchange more interesting. There were people arranging the gathering, local creative networks and an audience with its own interests. An international invitation can recognise an existing following while also giving the visitor an opportunity to encounter different work and ways of dressing.

In a separate report from Wolipop on her visit, Khan described being impressed by the variety of Indonesian bloggers' scarf arrangements at a shared dinner. She said those differences gave her ideas for future tutorials. Her response makes the direction of inspiration clear: she was observing and learning as well as appearing as a guest.

The point is her particular encounter, rather than a claim that every woman in Indonesia dressed alike or followed the same fashion priorities.

Recognition for the work itself

The Asian Media Awards recorded Amena Beauty as its Best Blog winner in 2015. The ceremony took place at the Hilton Manchester Deansgate on 29 October. The organiser's account identifies her beauty and scarf content and records her thanks to the judges and other nominees.

Cricketer Sajid Mahmood presented the award. The organisers placed Khan's channel alongside other blogging and commentary finalists, recognising a body of media work. That setting gives her creative practice a professional context: the skills involved in communicating with an audience could receive attention in their own right.

For readers discovering her through a later controversy or campaign, this earlier record supplies another part of the picture: a creative practice had already attracted professional attention before the more widely reported moments that followed.

The effort involved in being a familiar presence

Kristin Peterson's 2016 study in CyberOrient examined Khan's videos from 2013–2014, with closer analysis of seven that departed from her usual upbeat presentation. The selected videos included frustration, anger, sarcasm and sadness. Peterson considered tone, gestures, emotion and the relationship between fashion, aspiration and religious practice.

Her argument was that producing the atmosphere of a video is itself work. A creator offers more than information about an outfit: her manner can also convey reassurance, enjoyment or a sense of possibility. The study is an interpretation of a defined body of material, rather than a measurement of how every viewer was affected.

That distinction keeps the discussion grounded. It gives a reason to take beauty and lifestyle content seriously as communication, while leaving room for viewers to respond differently. A friendly presentation can involve care and effort without establishing that the audience knows everything about the person presenting it.

Beauty work, campaigns and personal visibility

Being included in a range of personal stories

McCann London's account of its True Match campaign places Khan among 23 participants whose individual experiences accompanied the foundation range. Her story concerned discovering foundation while preparing for her wedding. The same account describes Gary Thompson speaking about wearing foundation and AJ Odudu recalling difficulty finding a suitable shade while growing up.

The agency presented the campaign through individual voices and a range of skin tones, with plans for television, cinema and online material. Its account shows how personal experiences were organised within a commercial creative brief. Each participant supplied a different way into the same product category. The campaign paired the individual stories with 23 foundation shades.

For this profile, the useful detail is the place of an ordinary personal experience within a large beauty campaign. A woman wearing hijab could speak about make-up without the entire conversation being an explanation of her head covering. That possibility can sit alongside an interest in the religious or cultural meaning of dress.

A confidence programme beyond the photograph

The 2017 launch material for All Worth It, a collaboration between The Prince's Trust and L'Oréal Paris, records Khan among the ambassadors who spoke with young people at the launch. The announced programme combined group activities and individual support, with training planned in dedicated spaces and online. Helen Mirren hosted the launch; the other ambassadors named alongside Khan included Jada Sezer and Marcus Butler.

Its stated ambition was to reach 10,000 young people over three years. That was a programme target, rather than an outcome established by the launch announcement or an achievement attributable to Khan alone.

The announcement described 18 dedicated spaces in Trust centres, as well as outdoor learning and one-to-one support. These details connect the public launch with the practical setting envisaged for the work. A recognisable ambassador could help introduce the initiative, while the people delivering its activities had a continuing role. Both contributions belong in the account.

Developing Ardere with a practising make-up artist

In Gemma Peplow’s interview published by Pukaar in January 2017, make-up artist Paula Durance described launching Ardere with Amena. Durance brought experience from beauty training, cosmetics counters and working independently with clients. She spoke about the partnership as a shared interest in developing the products they wanted to use.

The range she described included five concealer shades, two brow-fibre shades, eight eye-glitter shades and two contouring shades, alongside a highlighter. These details place the collaboration in the practical vocabulary of cosmetics: different products for coverage, definition, colour and light. Durance explained that they wanted a concealer that resisted creasing and a highlighter that produced the effect they sought without repeated application.

Those were the founders’ product ambitions, rather than independent tests of performance. The account nevertheless adds a concrete strand to Amena’s career: working with another practitioner on a range, alongside presenting beauty content. Durance also described their working relationship warmly, linking it to their shared ideas and effort.

Taking beauty demonstrations into television

ITV’s Lorraine archive records Amena demonstrating how to change a daytime make-up look for the evening. Other official programme pages credit her with a Jennifer Lopez-inspired look, a festive eye demonstration and three contrasting lip looks. This was practical presentation work built around particular visual results.

The written credits also show connections with her product work. The Lopez-inspired segment lists Ardere’s Natural to Night palette and Flawless Concealer alongside other cosmetics brands. The festive eye segment includes the brand’s Queen palette, glitter and adhesive. The programme introduced that appearance as the beginning of its festive make-up series.

These records show a creator adapting beauty demonstration to an established programme’s format: a named look, a presenter and an accompanying product list. They broaden the account of Amena’s work beyond a single advertising campaign. The written pages establish the subjects and credits; they do not substantiate product performance or reproduce every step of the demonstrations.

Speaking in her own voice in ELLE

For ELLE’s April 2017 portrait of four Muslim beauty creators, Amena described beginning to wear a headscarf through her own decision. She recalled returning home with it on and telling her husband she intended to keep wearing it. Her account challenged an assumption that he had required the change. Alongside the magazine’s record of her beauty and business work, this was a specific personal recollection, rather than a claim to speak for every Muslim family.

The 2018 haircare conversation

In British Vogue's interview of 14 January 2018, Khan discussed appearing in L'Oréal Paris's Elvive haircare campaign while wearing a headscarf. She challenged the assumption that a woman who covers her hair in public would have little interest in caring for it.

She described enjoying her hair within her private life and valuing it whether or not strangers could see it. She also recalled not seeing many people she related to in the media when she was younger, and explained why being included in the campaign felt meaningful to her.

The interview's strength lies in that specific perspective. Public visibility is only one setting in which someone experiences her appearance. A woman can cover her hair and still enjoy it, without having to make that enjoyment available to an audience. Khan was explaining her own relationship with beauty, rather than setting out a rule for other women's private lives.

The announcement and the withdrawal both belong in the history

The campaign story did not end with that interview. On 22 January 2018, Khan announced that she was stepping down after criticism of tweets she had posted in 2014 about Israel. Euronews' contemporaneous report records her apology, her decision to delete the tweets and her stated concern that the controversy was overtaking the campaign's intended message.

A L'Oréal spokesperson told Euronews that the company acknowledged her apology and agreed with her decision to leave. Her Instagram announcement and the company's response establish how both parties publicly explained the ending.

Including the withdrawal keeps the chronology accurate. It does not require reducing the whole career to that event, nor treating the original campaign announcement as an uninterrupted success. A considered profile can hold the invitation, the explanation and the subsequent outcome together.

How she described visibility later that year

In a September 2018 first-person feature for Arab News, Khan returned to the lack of familiar faces she remembered seeing in entertainment when she was young. She also described being discouraged by people in the beauty industry who considered hijab a barrier.

As a teenager, she had questioned whether studying journalism, media or acting would offer a viable future when she saw so few brown faces on screen. Her later account placed importance on freedom of choice and on women being able to express themselves without others controlling the outcome. She also spoke about having a support system when dealing with hostile attention.

Reading this interview beside the earlier campaign records shows why a public journey is better understood through several dated accounts. A person can describe opportunity, frustration and a developing outlook within the same year. A single triumphant image or difficult headline cannot do all that explanatory work.

A longer creative life than any one headline

The published notes for Attention People's November 2019 conversation with Amena describe an interview about a decade of creating videos, facing fear, staying grounded and combining creative work with business and family. They offer a further listening route for readers interested in how she discussed her working life.

Those topics also provide questions for someone considering a creative project of her own. How would you make time for the work? Which fears deserve practical preparation? What would help you remain grounded as more people became interested?

Its place in the chronology is useful: the subjects associated with Khan's public work extended beyond the appearance of her scarf. A creative life also involves time, competing responsibilities and the effort of continuing after the excitement of a first project has passed.

Hosting her own conversations through THRIVE

The publisher’s descriptions for THRIVE with Amena document another change of role in spring 2020. The series began with a solo introduction on 2 April, followed by conversations with guests about work and personal life. Amena was now choosing the questions and subjects for a series of her own.

The episode notes identify Saud as her guest for a discussion of the pandemic’s effect on small businesses. A later conversation featured entrepreneur Helen Shakiba, whose wedding business was based in Leicester, discussing the experience of starting a company. James Wass joined an episode about earning additional income, while Amena’s sister Mai discussed expectations surrounding single life. Mai’s episode appeared on 12 April; the season concluded on 10 May with a conversation about marriage.

This range gives the project a different editorial shape from a clothing demonstration. It made room for a guest’s experience, with business and family subjects sitting within the same series. The descriptions establish those topics and participants; they should not be taken as evidence that every suggestion suits a listener’s circumstances. The dated first-season record also avoids assuming that its original release pattern continues today.

Why a familiar face can come to mean so much

A public figure can become familiar without becoming a close acquaintance. A reader may recognise an accent, enjoy a kind of humour or be relieved to see a way of dressing treated as ordinary. Those responses concern a part of the person’s public work; they do not need to become a claim that the two women share every belief or experience.

The word role model can conceal several different forms of admiration. One person may value a creative skill, another an example of professional possibility, another a feeling of recognition. Someone else may be looking for religious guidance. The same public image can attract all those expectations without its subject agreeing to carry them.

Keeping the distinction clear allows the reader’s response to be specific. Learning a technique, feeling encouraged and accepting someone’s opinion are different experiences. They need not rise or fall together when a creator changes her presentation.

That is especially relevant to a career whose audiences encounter different moments. An early tutorial, a campaign interview and a later announcement offer different points of entry. Each can matter to a viewer without becoming the only story anyone is allowed to tell about the person involved.

2020: a personal change and a public response

In June 2020, Khan announced in a video that she had stopped wearing hijab. The Religion Media Centre's contemporary account records her saying that she was not a religious authority and had felt uncomfortable with the responsibility people assigned to her. She did not set out her private reasons, and she stated her continuing support for women who wore hijab.

The Centre also sought comment from scholars. Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor raised the concern that the debate could pressure other Muslim women to take sides or become another occasion for judging them through appearance.

That response identifies a public question without supplying an explanation Khan had chosen not to give. The announcement can be acknowledged clearly while leaving its private background with her. Neither admiration nor disappointment gives an audience access to facts that have not been shared.

What research can tell us about the reaction

Dina Abdel-Mageed's 2022 study in First Monday analysed the video and comments captured on 28 June 2020. After gathering the most recent 10,000 comments, the researcher retained 6,811 top-level comments, narrowed these to 3,991 containing the word hijab, and examined a random sample of 200. Replies between users were excluded because the study focused on the relationship between the creator and her audience.

Within that sample, 73 per cent were classified as oppositional, 17.5 per cent as negotiated and 9.5 per cent as supportive of the video's message. The sample was not a survey of Muslim women or a measure of every subscriber's opinion.

Negotiated responses could combine disapproval of the decision with calls for understanding and restraint. The paper acknowledges that it could not capture silent responses, later changes of mind or reactions on other platforms. Its value is in documenting a bounded instance of disagreement, rather than giving an entire community one verdict. The original video was titled Change; the researcher records that it was later renamed Choice.

A response is not a complete account of a person

A public announcement tells us what someone has chosen to share; a response tells us how a reader received it. Neither gives an outsider a complete account of private beliefs or conversations.

A viewer can hold a strong conviction about her own religious practice without claiming to know another woman’s motives. A supportive response also needs that restraint: calling a change liberating or inevitable can assign an experience the person has not described.

Keeping emotional reactions separate from factual claims makes disagreement more precise. A reader can explain what a story brought up for her while acknowledging what she does not know about the woman whose story prompted it.

What readers can take from the story

Keep what helped you without making it a permanent contract

If a creator once helped you feel more confident in your own dress, that memory need not disappear because your paths later diverge. The benefit belongs to your life. A skill you learned remains a skill; an encouraging moment remains part of how you reached your present understanding.

Gratitude does not require continuing to follow content that no longer serves you. It is possible to appreciate an earlier contribution without turning the present into a test of loyalty. Someone’s work can have mattered to you without remaining central to your daily life.

For a reader who wears hijab, this can mean keeping her own reasons and trusted guidance in view. A public figure’s appearance does not have to carry the weight of her decision. For a reader who does not wear it, the story need not become an argument that others should follow the same path. Appreciation can remain personal, with room for both women’s lives to develop.

A public journey with room for an individual life

The most useful way to approach Amena Khan's story is to keep the different forms of evidence in proportion. Her interviews show what she chose to explain at particular moments. A reader's account describes an individual response. An event or award records a defined kind of participation or recognition. Research can examine patterns within its material while still having limits.

Together, they allow a more detailed conversation about creativity, belonging and the expectations attached to visibility. They also leave room for what a public account cannot contain. A person can contribute to a field without becoming its sole representative, and a reader can find meaning in that contribution without giving up her own judgement.

For a broader discussion of the people shaping contemporary clothing and representation, explore Amani's guide to Islamic fashion today. Here, the lasting question is more personal: which part of another woman's work has helped you, and how can you carry that usefulness into a life that remains your own?

Explore the wider creative conversation

For further accounts of designers, image makers and community projects, read hijab in British fashion. It provides a wider creative setting alongside this individual career, without making one woman’s choices stand for everybody else.