I get a lot of questions every day on how it is to participate in Miss Norway and why I decided to do so. I do think people will be surprised by how much it has affected and changed my life in a positive way the past months. When I was chosen among approximately 35 girls in September I decided to go all in.

I really needed a drive and a new motivation that was bigger than myself, and I wanted to make a change. Miss Norway gave me a reason to actually do it, follow my dreams and start the projects I had in back of my head for a while.

Since September, I have swapped jobs, I have moved from New York to Los Angeles, I have planned a trip to Kenya to help street kids, victim of abuse and violence. I have tried to make a difference in segmented groups in my hometown, and after all I have met so many amazing people.

By being in Miss Norway and represent your country and citym, have made me interact with people world wide. I am able to have a voice in the way we views beauty today, I shoot with amazing photographers and work with talented people. I am able to use my voice in the society to influence girls and people to a better everyday (at least I hope I do). But based on the feedback I have gotten so far it seems like it.

All these experiences I have had these past months and the people I have met have changed me as a person. I have grown so much, because I have followed me dreams, worked hard, and did what I have too. Because I wanted and I needed too. 

Before Miss Norway I needed a change in my life to become the best version of myself. I felt I was a little lost in a busy and toxic level in New York, but now it is all changing. I wanted to share this experience with you because it is such a beautiful thing, and It really have affected my life the past months to something better. I feel more happy and healthy and good. It is 5 months or so left of the competition, I have so much exciting to look forward to and I can not wait to see where this journey will lead too.  But I am so thankful for this experience and that I can be a part of this.

Sunny blessings from Los Angeles!

Hello!

It is only two weeks before I fly to Kenya, to spend almost two weeks there and work with the girls at Familia, the street kids and the children at New Life. I have been starting a fundraising on Facebook, because I want to do as much as I can while I am there. Since I am only able to travel with two suitcases and filled them with as much as shoes and cloths possible, I will need to buy a lot of things down there, which is also a good way to support local businesses and create flow in the economy.

So far, I have had people in Norway, US, Sweden, France and Germany donate.  I think it is quite amazing how we can all come together from different countries and continents to make it better for a third country.

The status so far is: $821 on Facebook fundraising and 1200kr on Bitcoin! I am so happy and thankful for everybody that have donated or even shared the project so far.  But we are still working towards 3000$.

Here is the link if anyone is interested in contributing or spreading the word!

https://www.facebook.com/donate/953907368106807/571497393208598/

Thank you so much for the love!

It is a subject I have been thinking about  lately.  I have a beautiful, smart and amazing friend. She loves sports, shopping, hanging out with friends and attend events. Her name is Ilham. Ilham and I are very similar. We care about the same things, laugh about the same things and share many of the same dreams. She is one of the persons you just immediate get a connection with.

“Oh wow! Are you guys friends?”, “I did not imagine you being such good friends”, “You guys are so different!” This is comments we get almost every day. The issue with this is that we are not that different. We like and care about the same things? I would say we are very much the same. But then we know what they are referring to. The looks. We live in 2018 and people to still categorize people based on looks.

Let us break it down. I am born and raised in Norway, and I can wear what I want, when I want and would rarely get a comment on that. Crop tops or short skirts are not an unusual part of my wardrobe.  Ilham she is born in Brooklyn, New York, with a family from Jemen. She does dress up in niqab and a little more covered up than I normally do. When we are walking the streets of New York together, attends social settings we get reactions: because we do look so different. We have never cared about that, because in the end you do not base your friends on how you dress up and look, right? Ilham have never ever questioned my shorter skirts or crop tops, nor have I with her long dresses. So why does other people have to do it then? “It is so weird that you guys are friends, when you look like that.”

Honestly, Ilham and I may never thought we would be best friends either. She had her thoughts about tall, blondies from Scandinavia, and I thought we wouldn’t have much in common. I think it is because people are dragged to people that look like us. Just look at us Norwegains, we are looking quite the same many of us. In big cities we also see groups of people with the same similarities group together. In many cases I think this is more about a comfort zone and security or insecurity. Cause we might be a little scared of what is different, and we do not know how to address it. We for example only know how to be Norwegian.

We it comes to other human beings and cultures, we need to open up our heart and mind. Talk to the person at school or at work which you never have spoken too, and ask yourself why? This person may be a person you have much more in common with than you think. Looks on the outside does not define the person on the inside. Ilham and I are very much the same. Yes, we are brining with us our differences, but those differences have been amazing, I have been celebrating Ramadan, eaten new food and she has been with me at Christmas celebrations and got an advent calendar. Our different backgrounds have teached us so much.

I hope everyone can be a little more open for cultural difference or just people that may seem or look a little different than us self. We are all different and it can add so much too out lives. Short dresses, blond hair, black hair, no hair, tall or short, young or old, Christian or Muslim; Friendship does not have a limit!

As you might have seen lately I had a photoshoot in Frognerparken in Oslo in January when I was home a few weeks ago. I was so lucky to work with an amazing photographer and make-up artist.  Daniel Milian and his wife Joceline.

We wanted to do something different than the photos in studio, so we decided to do it outdoor. Even though Norway was freezing cold in January, you do what you have to do right?

However, I really loved some of the pictures, and I really felt like a princess in a few of them. Isn’t that all girls dream?  Look at this:

All Pictures by: Daniel Milian

Make up: Joycelin Milian

Have a lovely day!

I wanted to share with you the experience from the concert we had on Tjoelling sykehjem January 9^th.

We wanted to get the focus on health care and the older generation. We know that many people on the nursing home does not have family members visiting them, and even though some of them do, they might enjoy some extra company.

The program was: Concert by Marthe Riis Gjertsen, followed by coffee and cakes.

I had organized most of it from New York, and I have such great people in my life that wanted to be a part of this. My best friend, that I know of since I was in kindergarten, which also is an amazing singer so she volunteered to sing. She prepared songs a few weeks in advanced. My mom and I had spent the last days baking cakes and making waffles that we were supposed to have after the concert.

It turned out to be such a success. I think we was as happy as the patients. In total we had two concerts on different departments. In many cases Marthe had to stop sing because a few of the ladies also would like to sing and we happily let them do so! It turned out we had to add a few more songs to the program as well as a few more artists! It was so great. The greatest was probably when one of the ladies started to sing Kjaere Gud ( Dear God) and basically everybody was singing. It was such an amazing vibe there.  We laughed and smiled so much that night all of us.

After the concert we sat up for coffee and cakes and everybody loved it!

“ This is an amazing party!”

“This is such a lovely tea party”

“Please come back anytime!”

“We enjoyed having you girls here so much!”

This was the comments we got afterwards, and it really warmed my heart! It was such a nice thing to do, and it was not that complicates. I think the patients; the employees and we were so happy after the event. I could go to sleep with a big smile on my mouth this night!

Here is some pictures from the event:

Two happy girls going home for the day!

Have a nice day!

Older people have always been something I cared so much for. My mom and my grandmother always took me and my brother with to visit the great grand parents of our family or others. My mom always made some extra food, so we could bring to the neighbors or other people that could not make it them self because the age caught up with them.  I was always so happy to see how happy they were for little things, and when I grew older I kept doing the same as my mom and my grandmother. I used to drive to my great-grand father and make him breakfast in the morning, and we used to spend the time talk about the old days and he was telling stories and showed me pictures. I think it made him as happy as it did for me.

Unfortunately, when age catch up, some need to get on nursing homes to be taken care of because they are not able to do it them self. Thank God, we have such a great health system in Norway that people are actually getting taken care of. (Yes, we complain sometimes, but if we are seeing the countries outside Norway we should be thankful).

When I visited my family in the nursing home the following years, I could see how much they appreciated us coming to visit. They loved to share their stories and just talk. Not everybody had people visiting them at all, so by see some new faces made them so happy. Sometimes just an extra coffee treat or tart could light up a day for them. After seeing how much small things and events do for the people at the nursing home, I decided I wanted to do something for the older people at the nursing home now.

After being in contact with my aunt and a lot of emailing back and forth from New York. We had a concert planned at Tjoelling Sykehjem  (My local nursing home from where I grew up).

My best friend is an amazing singer and she joined the project. My mom and I was making cakes and waffles that we wanted to bring as a treat after the concert. This was so we could sit down with them afterwards and just talk and enjoy the time together.

 This was the best day I had in a long time and I will tell you how it went in the next post! I will show you pictures from the day and also videos!

Meanwhile, take some extra care of the older people around you. I can guarantee they will love it.