Cosmo ME’s autumn issue cover star has an aura that very few can match. Confidence, it seems, comes to Ola Elsharef in abundance. In many ways, she has “always been this self-assured person deep down”, she tells us, but ever since her social media career kicked off, she finally has a platform to become the woman she’s always wanted to be.
That girl sure looks a lot like Ola. She wakes up at 5am to go to the gym, has a no f*’s given attitude, and she has that hard-working-girlboss energy that so many people wish for. For our cover story, we got granular on Ola’s Gemini-coded recipe to success – from overcoming negative comments, to finding the drive and resilience to show up for yourself and your loved ones.
Social media became a vessel for Ola to unleash her true confidence. “I always had the belief somewhere within me that I could do it all. But social media helped me live that fantasy of I am that girl”, she tells us.
The key to putting yourself out there online? Don’t overthink it, says Ola: “I used to feel like all of this was a game, that none of it was real. I still have a 9-5 and life is normal, so social media never felt like real life. I just do normal things, I’m just sharing my life”.Â
When it comes to negative comments, Ola’s approach is simple: just don’t read them. “If I want to keep my head straight, then I can’t read them. Because I know who I am and that’s enough”. PERIODT.
Dress: Zimmermann
Becoming the woman you always wanted to be also means embracing everything about yourself. For Ola, this meant getting to grips with her hair. “First off, curly hair was just accepted like two seconds ago”, she says. But the one brand who helped her find confidence in her natural hair, was Dyson; “The whole curly hair movement, Dyson pushed it”.
When Ola was accepted into the coveted ‘Dyson Squad’ (IYKYK, that’s a pretty huge deal in the creator world), it all felt a bit full-circle: “For me to embrace my natural hair and to work with a brand that celebrates all hair types, it’s amazing. Working with them makes me feel so beautiful, and I had the confidence to feel that there’s a place for me in this industry”.
If you learn anything from Ola Elsharef, make it her brazen self-assurance. If you put your mind to something, even against all odds, you can achieve success beyond your wildest dreams. And Ola is the blueprint. “I know there’s so much more for me”, she says. “I want to grow old and think ‘God damn, you did all of that’, so I will”.Â
Dress: Mach & Mach
Earring: Phenomenal Studio at Poison Drop
Ring: Tiffany & Co.