The Social Butterfly

With almost 1M followers on Instagram alone, rising model and actress Tara Emad reveals her secret to styling the perfect images and talks about football, color and her new favorite fashion accessory: her phone.


PHOTOGRAPHY BY BATOOL AL DAAWI

You have almost one million followers on Instagram alone—how do you keep up with your fans?

It scares me every time I see the number. But at the same time it humbles me to know that these people support me and are eager to know my career updates.


PHOTOGRAPHY BY BATOOL AL DAAWI

How do you feel Instagram and other social media have helped promote your work as a model and actress?

When I started, social media wasn’t much existent. There was no Instagram, only Facebook and it wasn’t as it is nowadays. Now realizing the amount of work, and exposure I get through social media and how it can truly help you reach a wider audience I feel everyone has a higher chance of reaching out with their product or their hobby/career to their target audience.


PHOTOGRAPHY BY BATOOL AL DAAWI

Selfies and group selfies are always top-performing images on social media—how do you style your own posts and how do you go about selecting the best ones? And why do you choose to use OPPO F3?

The people who follow you are always more excited to see you and your friends and what you are up to. So I always create a mix between my posts, some pictures of me while filming, some with friends and some random ones. I prefer to keep it as natural and spontaneous as I can because that best describes me as a person.

Actually, I chose OPPO, not the other way around! I have been using OPPO’s products for the past six months and think that it reflects me as a person. Young and fun, yet elegant and sleek; the perfect fashion accessory and a secret weapon for creating the perfect selfies and groufies in all settings; a must for someone as social and fun loving as me.


PHOTOGRAPHY BY BATOOL AL DAAWI

What tips do you have for bloggers and Instagrammers for the perfect selfie?

Stay natural and know your best angles. OPPO can help a lot with this utilizing the beautify feature that helps to amplify your best features through a range of options adapted to different complexions and face shapes, as well as numerous filters that fit whatever setting you’re looking to capture.

Groufies or group selfies really are trending these days amongst bloggers and influencers. OPPO has a great and unique edge over its competitors thanks to its double view group selfie camera, which ensures wider views that truly capture friends, family and the amazing setting of each photo.

How do you choose the products that you promote and how do you work on your selfies and posts so that they appear natural as opposed to direct advertising?

I choose to promote products that I am acquainted with through ambassadorship programs. My criterion is always that if I truly am a fan of this product and believe in it, I would promote it. Otherwise, I’d rather not post random posts as I would lose my credibility with my fans.

For me OPPO was the perfect match. Their product persona is based on ideas of purity, beauty and delight—all values that I share and I love their philosophy of making everything beautiful, because this is something I commit to doing in my daily life; so really, it just works! What made things even more exciting was finding out that OPPO are an official sponsor of the Barcelona team. I am absolutely obsessed with the team, so it was just the cherry on top.

We’ve heard you’re a big fan of football—tell us all about that. Have you ever attended a Barcelona match?

I do love to watch a good match! However, I don’t watch it on a regular basis. But yes Barcelona is my favorite team and the first match I attended for them was last year in Granada. And as for my favorite player, I would say Pique. And that was the first thing that grabbed my attention to OPPO brand even before working with each other.

Fashion and football stars are the most followed celebrities around the globe—what are the perks? And what are the pressures?

Those two professions are constantly under the spotlight therefore their news is always highlighted. The pressures would be that your private life won’t be private any longer. You realize that you share most of it with nearly everyone. It has its ups and downs of course.

Modeling is a tough business to get into anywhere in the world. Tell us about your experience breaking through.

I do agree that it’s a tough business. I’d always dreamt of going to a pageant competition as a kid, and when I did I truly enjoyed the experience. However, now I don’t feel I would want to continue and go to other pageants, I feel that it doesn’t resemble me, what I believe in or stand for. My perception of beauty has changed drastically over the past few years. I’ve realized how many girls torture themselves to fit in the “standards” that society has put us in and whenever I can, I speak up for myself and for every girl who has struggled to see herself beautiful. As for how modeling and the pageantry helped me launch my career, they have both built my confidence in front of camera drastically.


PHOTOGRAPHY BY BATOOL AL DAAWI

How has the local modeling industry changed?

In the last five years the modeling scene in Egypt in my perception has been booming. When I started 10 years ago it wasn’t like this or anything near it. No social media and very little competition. But now, many more make-up artists, models, photographers, designers and stylists are getting acknowledged and they have more space to create, design and unleash their artistry. And a healthy competition is always a win-win.

Who are your favorite designers and what trends are you following this year?

My favorite designer is Krikor Jabotian. I am madly in love with his designs. And as for the trend, I prefer to explore than to stick to a specific thing.

How do you style a trend to make a statement?

I really like the color red—it can offer a bold and fashion forward look and also allow for a real fashion statement. Red is such an interesting color to correlate with emotion, because it’s on both ends of the spectrum. On one end you have happiness, falling in love, infatuation with someone, passion, all that. On the other end, you’ve got obsession, jealousy, danger, fear, anger and frustration. It’s all about getting the balance right, a splash of the bright color can make a statement without going over the top, which is why the new F3 really is the perfect accessory and statement piece—A bold color to match my outfits and a fan hallmark that any Barcelona fan would be proud of, what more could you ask for?


PHOTOGRAPHY BY BATOOL AL DAAWI

Which film and serial have you enjoyed working on most? Tell us about it and why?

It would have to be Saheb El-Saada. It was really an honor for me to work with such a great actor like Adel Emam; it was a breakthrough for my career.

Who’s the director you’ve learned the most from on-set?

Rami Emam and Amr Arafa.

Today you’re a successful international model and rising actress—what are your dreams and goals for the future?

I want to compete internationally in the acting scene and become an Egyptian actress in Hollywood.

What message do you have for your fans?

Always stay natural, no matter what beauty standards the society puts. Life isn’t always really glamorous and fabulous. It’s about encouraging people to go back to natural beauty.