Shadia discovered at a tender age that for a young woman to pursue a pastime in beauty and fashion was not only difficult but also illegal in her native Sudan. As a teenage girl, she had photos taken and developed in America, an action, however innocent in other cultures, risked time in prison in Sudan. As it happened, the Sudanese police confiscated her photos. It was this injustice that led Shadia to realize that if she was to pursue her dreams in earnest, she had to leave her country. Shadia made her way to London, while there pursuing a degree in journalism, she began to act on her longtime dream to venture into a career in fashion.