Career Building: Asha Salim

Asha Salim (@ashasalimm on Instagram) is a writer, scholar, and consultant. She is the founder of Shas Consulting, which provides services like creative direction, writing, marketing & PR for art, brands and lifestyle. She is also the curator of the newsletter Unraveling Culture. 

Asha is a digital editor and avid writer, and takes a keen interest in critically challenging narratives and stereotypes. She has written for Vogue, Vogue Italia, FiftyFourMag, JAMit!, etc., and held positions at Off-White and Loro Piana. Through branded content, strong copywriting, creative marketing and online advertising, she narrates and brings stories to life. She is also deeply invested into empowering BIPOC communities whilst fostering creativity and literary knowledge through creative projects and initiatives.

KHAMSA had the pleasure of talking to Asha Salim and quizzing her with a variety of career-driven questions.

١. Asha Salim, what made you pursue writing? Were you always fascinated by it from a young age?

I have been writing for as long as I can remember – ever since I was a little girl, actually – and the funny thing is that I have started pursuing full-time on a more accomplished level just recently. I truly feel that the writing life has always pursued me; it’s just that now I have finally found the courage to pursue it back, to love it back.

٢. What were some of the early steps you took to start this career path?

Well, besides nurturing deep passion and respect for the art, I am an avid reader. I feel that you can’t decide to be a writer or pursue this career if you don’t read, if you don’t get informed. I hold a BA in Comparative Languages, Literatures & Cultures, and I feel that is what gave me a strong foundation to start moving my first steps in the academic/writing world.

I started as an intern at Fashion Company, and while I have learnt and grew so much there, in that time I have realized that I couldn’t see myself doing something and not write, so I started my newsletter, started writing essays, started pitching my work to magazines and people that I knew, and eventually someone who I hold very dear believed in me and pushed me into being more serious about it, and things just started falling right into place. 

٣. Writing is a career that has multiple avenues for people to explore and pick. What were some defining moments in your career that led you to the niche you operate in today?

I am still unsure if this is my niche, my actual career. As a creative consultant, scholar and multidisciplinary, I always struggle with the word ‘niche’. I’d say there were many moments, there still are. One of the key moments was definitely writing on print, the second was having people I admired wanting to collaborate with me on, and the third which it is really an ongoing moment – the feeling I get when my academic/cultural work and voice is seen and recognized. This in particular pushes and propels me to dive more into the issues and the realms I am passionate and I care about.

٤. Please tell us more about your newsletter, Unraveling Culture.

So Unraveling Culture is literally the evolution of mind. It was born as a diary/essay space, and now it has turned into this beautiful and growing platform in which I explore the themes of identity, politics, race, womanhood, sexuality and aesthetic, by way of global pop-culture themes, influences moments, and literature. The platform hosts personal musings as well as conversations with creatives, professionals and artists who continue to help me define the ways in which cultures and aesthetics influence who we are, what we like and how we are perceived. Stay tuned for the upcoming Culture Conversations – it is really special!

٥. Writing is a mixture of factual analysis and creative flair. How do you nurture and maintain your creative inspiration over time?

I am a very curious and emotional person lol, which means I find sentiment and novelty in almost everything that I see, and when I do it I need to document it, which is very helpful when it comes to nurturing any creative practice. Additionally, my personal background definitely plays a huge part in keeping my inspiration alive; being East African, as well as being Neapolitan allows me to tap into cultures that are so rich, so lively, so full of poetry, contradictions and thought. I feel so blessed to have this endless source to tap into. 

٦. Lastly, is there any advice you have for aspiring writers and editors/the public?

Have passion, be passionate. Half of what you do is your passion, your heart, so have that and put it into your heart, into your life – it makes all the difference. Then I would say – read, read and read, anything, especially things you are not familiar with, that’s how you grow as a person and as a writer. Be genuinely interested in people, in their stories, I truly believe that community is the most important thing, so make sure to nurture that. Last, but not least – “believe in your own scent”, what makes you YOU, what makes you stand out, special, you have to believe in that and see it as value. Ultimately, in the words of one of my favourite lyricists Nipsey Hussle, “It’s not on you, it’s in you.”