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Women Behind 'Nuri' Hope She Can Teach Black Girls To Love Their Skin

By Andrea V. Watson | March 9, 2017 5:21am | Updated on March 10, 2017 11:34am
 Maryam Afzaa (left) and her mother, Shannon Hill Muhammad, created a company selling products with images of a smiling
Maryam Afzaa (left) and her mother, Shannon Hill Muhammad, created a company selling products with images of a smiling "Nuri" in 2009.
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Kenneth Wright

CHICAGO — For an art project when she was in third grade, Maryam Afzaa repeatedly drew the face of a smiling black girl with puffy hair and cartoonlike features.

Afzaa, of Marquette Park, didn't think much of the drawings and tried to throw them away. But her mother, Shannon Hill Muhammad, said the beauty of the drawings captured her attention.

So she saved them. A few years passed, and one day she came across them again, and asked God for guidance.

“I said, ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do with this,’ but I said, ‘Father, lead me and guide me,” Muhammad said.

And that's when she says she got the idea to turn the image into a logo for a clothing line with the name, Nuri, a character she says represents self-love and life.

Nuri is on T-shirts for girls. [Provided/This Lil' Light of Mine]

Now, the women are hoping to spread the image around the world “so more girls can see the image, think 'that’s beautiful' and identify with that beauty,” said Afzaa, now a college student. “The majority of black and brown girls around the world still struggle with loving themselves. It's especially hard for darker-skinned women."

The company dates to 2009, when Muhammad bought a silkscreen machine, made a batch of T-shirts with the Nuri logo and gave them away at her daughter's school. When she saw the response, Muhammad said she knew she was on to something.

She featured Nuri on a line of products the family launched through the company This Lil’ Light of Mine. Products include T-shirts, polos, onesies, aprons and more. Prices range from $20 for a toddler T-shirt with flounce to $70 for a custom-made onesie. Other custom products also can be ordered, Muhammad said.

Muhammad said her company is working to get the products into major retail stores. Right now, the company sends out a life-size mascot to events to help promote the products.

The company also is working on a children's picture book called “Nuri Means Light.” It’s due out this summer via Tiger Stripe Publishing.

Nuri was created in 2009. [Provided/This Lil' Light of Mine]

Afzaa, now 20 and a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, said that although Nuri was “created by chance,” her third-grade drawing has had a powerful impact on black and brown girls.

“I am proud of every moment [where] I saw a little girl's face light up when she [saw] the image of Nuri and wanted it for herself,” Afzaa said.

She said she’s thankful that her mother salvaged those drawings.

“She saw a value in it that I didn’t at the time,” Afzaa said.

“Every girl should know that she’s beautiful, and that needs to be instilled at a young age,” said Afzaa.