I like shopping at retail places like JC Penney or Macy's, and maybe buying a top or a shirt, and then buying a skirt from Rue 21 or Forever 21 because they have the maxi skirts, which I appreciate so much, and then topping it off with something that I buy from a Somali shop.

To be honest, before I joined the industry, I knew very little about the fashion world, and I hardly knew any name brands. Probably because the price tags were a little too high, and home girl needed to work.

I know that for me, a lot of people will look at me and they'll think 'Somali' or 'outsider' instead of 'Minnesota.'

A lot of people had a misconception that I would be the perfect poster child for Islam. So I got a lot of Instagram comments like, 'Oh, you don't have your neck covered, you're not a Muslim!' My thing is, stop judging women, especially if you're a man, because you don't know the responsibility that comes with wearing a hijab.

We all have different things that make us strong and weak, but if we communicate and we really open ourselves and open our hearts, you're going to be amazed by the things that you can learn.

What I do is I always try to educate myself about my neighbors, about the people I meet.

You don't have to show a lot of skin to be beautiful.

It's always been hard trying to find the right pieces that go together, but it's always been something that interests me - finding new ways to be fashionable and cute but still being modest.

When I was younger, I didn't have that type of person that I could look up to and be like, 'OK, this is someone who dresses like me and I relate to.' I didn't have that growing up, so to give that opportunity to a younger generation of women - and not just Somali women, but anyone who feels different - that means a lot to me.

There are so many Muslim women that feel like they don't fit society's standard of beauty. I just wanted to tell them it's OK to be different; being different is beautiful, too.

My goal is to send a message to Muslim women and young women everywhere that it's okay to break stereotypes and be yourself.

A lot of people have the misconception that, as a Muslim woman, I am somehow against women wearing bikinis. No, I want women to feel comfortable and confident in whatever they wear.

I choose to focus on the positive.

I feel like with anything you choose to do in this world, there are always gonna be people who disagree. But I've had a lot more supporters than critics.

Product-wise, I use a morning and night cleanser. I'm really not a brand person.

Moisturizing every night is important. When you're 50 or 60, it's going to show if you don't take care of it. You have to prepare when you're young, so you still have that healthy, glowing skin when you're 60 or 70.

My mom and grandma, growing up, one thing they emphasized was that you need to make sure that anything you put on your skin is also digestible by the body. For example, if something isn't safe for me to eat or consume, it's probably not good for your face. So I do a lot of natural remedies.

Society puts so much pressure on girls to look a certain way.

I have much more to offer than my physical appearance, and a hijab protects me against 'You're too skinny,' 'You're too thick,' 'Look at her hips,' 'Look at her thigh gap.' I don't have to worry about that.

Every little girl looks up to her mom so much - that's your first hero.

If you think people are against you and that you're a target, things will start appearing that way. I just go about my day, and I don't think anyone is out to get me.

When people put labels on us, it doesn't always enclose everything that we are. So even though I'm proud to be Somali, I'm proud to be American, at the end of the day, I'm still Halima, and I take things from both sides and combine them, and I make my own little category. I'm me!

I feel like I'm here to bust those misconceptions and stereotypes of Muslim women.

When you have a lot of women in our state that do wear the hijab, we should be able to see that everywhere.