The Curation by Nour Hassan

Nour Solo [MM]: From Saudi to Egypt My Journey Through Culture, Creativity and Curation

• Nour Hassan • Season 12 • Episode 145

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Nour Hassan shares her journey from growing up in Saudi Arabia to building The Curation, a platform celebrating art, fashion, design, and culture across the Middle East and beyond.

• Born in Jeddah to an Egyptian family with Saudi roots, attending the British International School that shaped her worldview
• Credits her international school experience for teaching critical thinking and instilling values of unity, diversity, and acceptance
• Early creative passions included art, magazines, and creating collages that foreshadowed her future career
• Chose to attend university in Egypt rather than London to reconnect with her Egyptian heritage
• Studied architecture before switching to mass communication, with additional education at UCLA
• Founded "Radical Contemporary" in 2018 to highlight young regional creatives, later rebranding to "The Curation"
• Built a career as a stylist, creative director, producer, and writer featured in Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Vogue, and Forbes
• Values being niche rather than mass market: "I am for those who get it, for the intellectuals and the girls who want to be smart"
• Believes we're in "the era of curation" where personally selecting what defines you is essential
• Morning wellness habits include waking up early once weekly and delaying coffee intake
• Despite her social professional persona, values alone time for reading, thinking, and strategizing

Make sure to follow @theCurationPodcast on Instagram, @NourHassan and @PilatesbyNour to stay updated on all available content, as well as The Curation podcast on all podcasting platforms and @The.Curation on TikTok.


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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Curation, a show for the culturally curious. This is your host, noor Hassan. Each week, I'll guide you through a curated edit of the finest in art, fashion, design, culture, luxury, wellness, tech and more. This is your go-to space for discovering trailblazing ideas, untold stories and meaningful conversations with innovators and creators who are shaping our world. There's no gatekeeping here, so sit back, tune in and let's discover only the best together. Get ready with me. We'll talk a little bit about myself. We reached 10,000 followers on TikTok, but it's the perfect time to do a get to know me.

Speaker 1:

I feel like a lot of people on this channel don't really know me that well. I am 31 years old, you guys, and I'm very, very proud of that, alhamdulillah. I start with it because I feel like a lot of women like try to hide their age, and there's no need for it. I always say you know, the 30s are the best years of your life so far and the 30s are the new 20s. So I grew up in Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia. I did not grow up in Cairo at all. My mom has Saudi Arabian roots and my father worked there his whole life. I grew up my whole entire life 18 years in Jeddah and Saudi Arabia. I'm Egyptian. I'm very much an Egyptian woman. I love, love, love. Being from Egypt, basically, I wasn't very connected to Egypt at all throughout my childhood and that's how my obsession with Seyhel began as a child. But it was Seyhel Tayeb and to this day, shout out Virginia Beach. To this day it's like my heaven and thank God my parents never sold their childhood home and, to be honest with you, it is for me my happy place. It's the place that I go back to and feel the most myself. I am a very, very creative person. I've always been a creative person. I've been obsessed with magazines since I was a kid. I would do collages and I would cut up little bits of magazines and I would kind of create my own little world.

Speaker 1:

I took IGCSCs and then IB and my favorite subject in IB was art and my second favorite subject was English. I was a mega nerd in school. The perfect balance between you. Know. I wasn't like hanging out with the cool kids but at the same time I wasn't hanging out with like the ones that were like super introverted. I always hung out with everybody. I went to the cool parties. I studied in breaks with the nerds. I tutored. I did a lot of different things.

Speaker 1:

What I can say about growing up in Saudi Arabia is that the school I went to really shaped who I am. It was called the British International School of Jeddah Conti, so for the Egyptians it's like the bisque of Saudi, but at the time it was one of the top rated schools in the world and I credit my school for seriously teaching me how to think. Ib was such a challenge to the point where when I finished IB and I was predicted 40 something major nerd I was supposed to go to London. I did a last minute decision to come to Cairo because I wanted to reconnect with my Egyptian roots. Can you guys imagine I wanted to reconnect with my Egyptian roots. Can you guys imagine?

Speaker 1:

Another amazing thing about my school is that I had friends and still do, alhamdulillah from all walks of life. So everyone from America to Australia, to Spain, to Lebanon, to Syria, to Saudi Arabia, of course, to literally every country you can think of. We had someone at school from that country and we used to have something called international day. International day that can be what in our cultures would come. Dressed in our culture, I would always dress as a pharaoh. You know, you guys know my obsession with Nefertiti. If you've been following me, I go to Berlin specifically to just see her. But anyway, I would dress as a pharaoh and you would bring food from your culture. You would talk to people, we would sing our cultural songs, speak our languages, and it just enriched you with cultures from all around the world. It instilled in us values that I use to this day, of unity, diversity, acceptance. We always talk about these topics in school and it made me feel that there is no judgment.

Speaker 1:

I do not judge anybody for what they choose to do in their life, and that, I think, is one of the keys that made me a successful person in my job, which is a podcaster, an interviewer, a journalist, a person who needs to be curious in their work about not just my life but other people's lives. I always ask questions, I always ask questions. My grandfather used to say I would ask a million and one questions as a kid, and they were like questions that were way beyond my years. But, like I said, I was into art, into fashion, into writing, and all of that came to fruition when I moved to Egypt. I went to AUC and I did architecture for a year because I also have a deep obsession with design, interior design, buildings, homeware, etc. But for me, this is not really my calling. What I like to do is tell stories and communicate.

Speaker 1:

I switched to Mascan, which was the perfect decision for me, and I studied that for a couple of years, went to UCLA, studied public relations, public speaking and, as well, film, and graduated after three years at AUC. Because, truly, guys, ib made me skip like two semesters. That's how crazy that program is. And so, yeah, I mean like in the end, I think moving to Egypt was the best decision I ever made in my entire life. Why didn't you go to London? Why would you move to Egypt? All of this, and I honestly think, guys, you need to be connected to your country and your culture somehow, and I think it changed who I am, it changed the course of my life and it created a space for me to thrive, because when I started my platform in 2018, I called it Radical, contemporary.

Speaker 1:

At the time, for the OGs, it really was something completely radical and contemporary. No one was writing about the young creatives in the region. No one had an expansive network, which is Gulf people and people in Dubai and people in Cairo and my dad's family is also half Emirati, so I had a big connection there as well and I expanded this over the years and so it kind of built a platform that was a first mover in so many things in the way I talked, in the way I presented myself, in an unapologetic manner with which I sort of kind of spoke to the audience in Arabic, in English and in all the languages I usually use in the day, right, a little bit of French, a little bit of French guys, not a lot, a little bit. But I felt that at the time, wow, I couldn't believe the reception. It was fantastic.

Speaker 1:

And I did Radical for a few years and I did everything, guys. I was a stylist, creative director, producer, writer every role you can imagine. I appeared in Harper's Bazaar, elle, vogue, forbes, interviewed over 150 people of the top, top, top, top, top individuals in the region, really fulfilled so many of my dreams, you know, wrote for all of these magazines as well, not just featured in them, and it was just such a wild ride. And then I think last year I was like you know what I've done everything I wanted to do with this platform. I think it's time to pivot and so I renamed it and rebranded it the Curation, because I think my first and last love in life is picking and selecting and editing the best art, fashion, literature, design, ideas and presenting it to you guys.

Speaker 1:

This is what I love to do and I think, honestly, we are in the era of curation. If you can't pick and choose and edit and maintain the character of who you are and kind of like curate your own character in life these days, you're really going to be completely lost, because in the age of AI and technology, I mean, we're being fed who to be, and so if you don't select it yourself, if you don't follow it yourself, if you don't follow creators who are selective with the content that they present to you, you're going to be in trouble of kind of like being a copy paste which I talk about a lot of everyone else and the winners in this world, they're the ones who are going to be able to stick to who they are, and so I always like to say that I am a person who is niche. I don't want to be mass market. I am for those who get it, for the intellectuals and the girls who want to be smart and also kind of take care of themselves. Why not try to do both?

Speaker 1:

I'll tell you more about my Pilates journey on a different video, because it's a completely different and parallel story in my life that involves my journey with scoliosis and many other things that I want to talk about separately. But in terms of my childhood, my upbringing and sort of like, how I built my brand, that's who I am, and I definitely will do a more personal Get to know me on me as Noor, but I hope this gave you guys a little bit of insight into the curation, how it came about, and right now I live in Cairo, but I'm between here and Dubai and Saudi and I go around interviewing people who I think are actually extraordinary. So follow the curation podcast, stay tuned, and I hope you liked my get to know me. Get ready with me. All right, guys, I'm gonna answer some of the questions that I got from you on Instagram.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so a day in the life I think I'm gonna do a video for this one. The day in the life I think I'm going to do a video for this one. The day in the life in general is something that is really hard for me to film because every single day is kind of different, but in general, what I do like to do, like I always say in my episodes, is wake up early at least once a week, but I don't wake up early every day. I definitely would recommend the seven step fall reset, glow up guide and that kind of will show you, not a day in the life but at least in a month, the tools and the strategies that I use to kind of try my best to stay on it. Okay, all right, favorite wellness beauty ritual, I would say at the moment it's Gua Sha, because I know that a lot of people don't believe in Gua Sha. But guys, gua Sha is life changing. Like, think about it. You work out the muscles of your entire body and you never really work out the muscles of your face. Gua Sha, for me, is top tier. I'm very into it right now and it's the wellness ritual that really I'm really, really enjoying. I'm very into it right now and it's the wellness ritual that really I'm really, really enjoying.

Speaker 1:

Okay, what's the part of being what? Oh, what's the hardest part of being an entrepreneur podcaster? The hardest part is that you're your own boss. It's 1000% your choice and this is really, I think, the toughest challenge. Sometimes I wish I had a nine to five and someone to tell me when to clock in and clock out, but the hardest part of being an entrepreneur is that. The hardest part of being a podcaster is in. Definitely, you can drain your social battery very quickly. You talk a lot, whether to the camera, to other people, to whatever. It's very much a job where you need to pour in your own cup in order to be able to give to others.

Speaker 1:

Okay, what's a habit that completely changed my life? I really do think it is the waking up early, once a week at least. It's one of those habits that I just can't. I cannot find something better. I wish I could do it every day and, to be honest, maybe one day I'll get there, and I have in the past done that. But I think that's the biggest one. And I think the second biggest one habit that has changed my life would be not to drink coffee first thing in the morning. For sure. Delay coffee intake and, yeah, have something to eat, drink anything else. I have my detox tea here. It's from royal. It's a brand in cairo that I really like and it's like it's just called detox. Drink anything before your coffee. You guys, it's way better for you.

Speaker 1:

Okay, what's something you're currently obsessed with, like a book, a brand, etc. I think I'm currently obsessed with my makeup by mario blush stick. It's like insane as something that I'm obsessed with. I'm also obsessed with my b5 laroche haya. It's called haya lu serum insane, guys, it's such a good serum Obsessed. And a book that I'm currently obsessed with. I'm not really obsessed with a book right now, but I would say I mean, obviously, power by Robert Greene is always the book that I ultimately think is the best thing you could read in your life. Basically, okay.

Speaker 1:

Last question what's one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?

Speaker 1:

I think one thing people would be surprised to learn about you I think one thing people would be surprised to learn about me is that I am not the most um, don't know like, I'm not the most social person you'll ever meet in your life, but I am a social butterfly. But I'm also Libra, so I go through phases where I can socialize for hours and days, but I definitely do need to like get back into my shell and and I love being alone. I love it more than anything because I am an intellectual, I like to read. I like to think, I like to strategize. So, yeah, I don't know. I think people would be surprised to learn that, but I think it works well for my job and the structure of what I have to do. Thank you for listening. Make sure to follow at the Curation Podcast on Instagram, at Noor Hassan and at Pilates by Noor to stay tuned on all of the content that is available, as well as the Curation podcast on all podcasting platforms and the Curation on TikTok.