Noor Naim’s voice starts to break. Her hands are trembling. The tears begin to drip across her otherwise perfect makeup. Just an hour earlier, the social media superstar exuded charm, class, elegance, and self-confidence. But suddenly – as we start to discuss her past – the flashbacks begin.
“It was 2011. We were at an airport in Turkey, and we had been there all day, with my sister, brother, and my mother. She was in a wheelchair. We were cold, we were hungry, and we were scared. Someone was supposed to pick us up, but nobody came. I kept saying, ‘Oh God, why us, why me? What did I do to go through all of this, and I am not even 14 years old?’ But now I see, everything happens for a reason.”
Whatever the reason, a lot has happened. Three years later, in Michigan, Naim made her first-ever YouTube video. And today, at just 27, Naim – better known as Noor Stars – is the biggest Arab female YouTube star on the planet, with 21.1 million subscribers to her channel. Add to that nearly 16 million on Instagram, 3.4 million on Facebook, 10.3 million on TikTok, and 3 million on Snapchat – combined with her podcasts – Naim has nearly 60 million followers across her multiple platforms.
Little wonder that brands including PlayStation, Estée Lauder, Hisense, Clarins, and Aldo have been queuing up to be associated with her. She was also featured in L’Oréal Paris’s first-ever Ramadan 2024 campaign and is part of the new Netflix series Super Rich in Korea.
From super lonely to superstardom, Naim is no longer cold, but she is as hungry as ever – for even more success. “I want to be the most successful female YouTuber in the world, not just the region,” she says, with her sights firmly set on Kimberly Loaiza, who has 45 million subscribers.
As for the master plan? “I want to be the highest YouTube earner of all time. Money is a status of success. It’s not the money I am after, but it is a measure of success. I want to be a billionaire; I am capable of it. All the hunger, the dirt, the restless nights, the fear. The loneliness. Now I accept this is what made me. I am unbreakable,” she says.
Reaching her goals would mean doubling her YouTube subscriber base just to draw level with Loaiza, and as for becoming a social media billionaire, she is striding into Logan and Jake Paul territory. Big goals and big dreams. But given her remarkable story so far, and how she has gone from zero to 60 million in no time, only a fool would bet against her.
If being stranded at an airport in Turkey was a low point, it was just one of many. Originally from Iraq, Naim and her family fled the country in 2005 during the war when she was just eight years old. They moved to Syria, where some of her family had relocated. Six years later, they were on the move again after civil war broke out there, heading to Turkey, where the family was eventually placed in a refugee camp.
“I think we spent two and a half years in Turkey. It was very tough. I was hungry. It was hard to get food, and we had no money. So, I had to work illegally at the age of 14. My first job was in a beauty salon. I didn’t know what I was doing; I just pretended I did. I didn’t speak the language. If they asked for a chair, I would bring a plate, and they would scream at me. I would go to the bathroom and cry, then come back and smile. Because that’s what I had to do, to keep the job,” she says.
Eventually, the family was accepted as part of a UN relocation programme to be moved to the US, initially landing in Seattle and later moving to Michigan. “I dreamt of going to the USA and being in that yellow bus going to high school. When it happened, I thought, yes, this is the American dream. I thought it would be like the movies. But it wasn’t. It was another zero, we had to start from zero. America is a hard country, and you have to work hard for any opportunity,” she says.
Naim attended high school in Michigan, but with limited English, it became another challenge. She explains: “I was very lonely. I imagined it to be glamorous, but it wasn’t. I was going through a lot of issues and all the traumas I had been through; I was just angry. I felt I wasn’t learning how to speak English properly. The teachers told me to do extra work and learn more English by watching YouTube. It was there that I saw for the first time a video done by a creator; it was a makeup tutorial. I thought, who is this? That led me to discover this new world, to discover makeup, to discover the camera and videos.”
It was a discovery that would change her life forever. Her mother gave her an iPhone that the family was paying $25 a month for, and she created and uploaded her first-ever video, “What’s on my iPhone,” in Arabic. It got over 50,000 views.
“It was my escape. It was my little secret, my thing. Nobody knew about it,” she says.
After borrowing some cash from her mother – who still didn’t know about her other life as a content creator – she purchased a cheap camera during Black Friday and started posting more regularly. After a year, her videos began to be shared on Facebook, attracting hundreds of thousands of views. Two years later, Google approached her with a $50,000 deal.
“I was screaming. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I realised then that this was not just a passion, but a business and a career. And I used the money as a down payment for a house for the family. That was my goal, for us to finally have our own home,” she says.
In 2021, with her career as an influencer now in full swing, the family relocated to Dubai, and since then, she has been on an even greater upward trajectory. Today, Noor Stars is not just a YouTube channel but a mega-brand. She has nine full-time staff, is raking in millions of dollars each year, and has one of the biggest platforms any female has ever achieved in the Arab world. It has also meant huge changes to how she operates.
“I am the leader of a team now. Being a leader of people is harder than being a content creator. With content creation, you have to learn a lot by yourself. This team looks up to me as their leader. I need to lead them every day, give them the best environment to work in, and care for them,” she says, adding: “Yes, I have had to fire people. It’s hard, it’s very hard, but you have to do it. But I am more ruthless now,” she says.
As for fame, she says: “You cannot hide being famous. I am comfortable with it now, but it really hit me when I first moved to Dubai. When you are famous, you must adapt, and it was a big culture shock. I got a lot of attention when I first moved here. It felt like a lot of pressure. Fame can be very powerful, and it can be very dangerous. You have to know this.”
She adds: “When you get to this position, with money and success, it’s very hard to trust people, but I try to not let it consume me. But there are good people. I have a small circle, and it gets smaller and smaller. You need people that care for you, not just people who are there for you in the good times.”
So what’s next for Naim? At 27, she has already achieved more than most people twice her age and has earned enough to never work again. But you get the feeling she is only just getting started.
She says: “I am passionate about people, listening to them, their stories. I am trying to understand my purpose more. I think I am here to affect other people’s lives and help them as much as I can to achieve their goals. I’ve been through a lot, and I still made it. If I can do it, you can. Anyone can.”
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