Since I was a little girl, I always wanted to be an entertainer.

I love to sing and dance and act and make people laugh. And I think the best part of acting, is you get to experience all kinds of things and play all sorts of characters.

But growing up I never thought there would ever be a chance for me.

I started wearing hijab when I was about 8 years old. That sounds really young, I know.

No one really forced me to. It just sort of happened. I was an impressionable little kid.

The world is a very tempting place, and for me at least, hijab keeps me in check.

If I didn’t wear hijab, I may have realized my dream to become an actress, but maybe the things I would have taken part in would not have been all that suitable for a Muslim woman.

Wearing hijab makes me second guess things instead of taking them at face value. I often reflect on opportunities and what that would mean for me as a Muslim woman and how it would reflect on Islam as a whole.

Some of you may know my story of trying to break into the broadcast television industry, only to be told time and again, that my hijab would not be allowed because news reporters shouldn’t have “obvious” signs of religion.

While I was feeling down about my latest string of rejection letters I somehow ended up applying for a reality TV show. And I was cast for the Paris Hilton BFF reality show.

I was so close to going. I even had my passport renewed.

But the producer mentioned that if I came I would have no contact with my family for at least 6 weeks (My daughter was a year old at the time). And to top it off, he said he would be worried for my safety.

He thought Muslims would freak out if I was on the show and try to harm me.

After seeing a few snippets of the show, I’m kind of relieved it didn’t work out. I would have just been sitting out of every challenge.

But this incident made me realize that hmm… Muslim women (hijabis in particular) are never represented in mainstream movies and television shows, maybe its because we don’t ever try to get involved?

This show was willing to give me a chance, and the producer said they’d never had a hijabi even apply to any of their programs.

In the last year or so, I’ve made up my mind to break into the mainstream entertainment industry.

I’ve decided that hijab should never be a hindrance to achieving your goals, and that it if it’s meant to be, things will fall into place.

I now look back at all the rejection from television news as a good thing. I wouldn’t have started this blog or video series otherwise. And I never would have tried to get into the acting industry.

It also pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and actually use my journalism skills to do something I enjoyed (putting this blog together).

I often wonder if the reason I even got into broadcast is because it was the “acceptable” thing for a Muslim woman to do.

In college I would take extra curricular classes in theater or voice training. And those were my absolute favorite courses. But I never thought I could take it further than that.

After the Paris Hilton experience, I decided on a whim to send out my headshot and resume to dozens of talent agencies in Chicago. I didn’t know whether I would ever hear back. But, I knew that if I never tried, I would just sit wondering “what if”?

As of now two things have happened on my journey…

1. I became the first hijabi (at least in Chicago) to be represented by a few talent agencies.

2. I got my first acting gig in a training video for Accenture. I was actually shocked because I was asked to play a regular manager at the company. I wasn’t typecast or made into an “ethnic” character.

The next time you watch a show and say to yourself “Hey I could do that!” Realize, that it’s not just a dream out of reach.

You can do it, and it’s time as hijabis we make our presence known.

Behind the Screen is a weekly column written by Hijabtrendz Editor in Chief Mariam Sobh.

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