The Heart of Naley by Nature
The vision was born like most great ideas: a gradual interplay of realizations, scattered thoughts and emotional waves aligning to what was happening behind global headlines. The people that are reduced to facts and figures, whose fates were explained as inevitable.
In the midst of spiritual upheaval, conversations between Naley and Sadia began to uncover a deeper intensity, an energetic shift they were feeling from their our own personal experiences. There were moments when the patterns and synchronicities felt overwhelming. They realized how much was deliberately hidden from them, about the world, about power, about themselves. They were determined to see the story for what it really was. So, they decided to tell it to themselves.
This was their friendship. It didn’t transcend time, nor was it a chance encounter. No, Naley and Sadia’s was a connection that endured through the many phases of their lives - and the weight of THAT history birthed Naley By Nature.
Naley By Nature was launched right in the beginning of 2021 as a YouTube channel. In the phone call the two had before they launched the channel, Naley and Sadia went back and forth, brainstorming names. This was the texts sent between the two of them immediately after that call:
Strangely enough, Naley By Nature came to Naley in a eureka moment — a spark that lit up her spirit one day. But it wasn’t random. They had been slowly piecing together the larger story, building a narrative framework to see the world better, to see themselves more clearer.
Naley and Sadia were unknowingly piecing together their storytelling process through their relationship.
Flashes in the pan are just that; POOF! Then they vanish just as fast, never accounting for what came before and how it transmutes the present moment into something that makes the future worth living for.
The pair like to think of Naley By Nature as one ongoing conversation reflecting back to each of our deeply personal evolutions.
In the beginning, Naley planted the seeds of her vision.
For months, she watered it on her own; she tended to it as if it were a garden of story ideas yearning to take root and soar. Later, Naley invited Sadia to put her roots in alongside hers. They were already extensively discussing what had been done, but now Naley was asking Sadia, “Well, what will you do?”
“Well, what will you do?”
This was the dynamic of their relationship: Naley pushed the movement forward, while Sadia zoomed out at ground level. This very piece is what made them believe so deeply in themselves, in their vision.
When the Sheikh Jarrah protests found their way into our timelines, at the same time George Floyd’s murder led to mass global protests against police brutality and institutional racism, the writing was on the wall. Who are we really entrusting to tell our stories?
“Who are we really trusting to tell our stories?”
The future of humanity felt like it was hurled in the air like a gauntlet. The shroud of illusions was slipping in a world that did not know what it was headed towards. That should have been more terrifying to the pair, but strangely, it felt like the time was theirs for the taking.
In an act of courage, Naley and Sadia both quit their corporate jobs and got serious about documenting the stories buried in the Western news headlines. They truly believed that they could catalyze a global cultural movement if they could just share the stories that pans the spotlight to people that have been pushed into the margins of society, hidden from our realm of awareness.
With this reason in mind, they hit the road with camera in tow.
First Stop: Palestine
When the Western world was heavily censoring Palestinian humanity in the news and online, Naley and Sadia started documenting interviews with an array of remarkable people living in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Palestinian people under occupation were not left behind; they were strategically shunned from Western media, literature, and advocacy. The West’s silence existed like a collective unconscious waiting to unload. The truth always existed in what was not said, who was not accounted for, and where we couldn't go.
Palestinians and so many other groups of people across the world have been systematically dehumanized with words and images for decades. Naley and Sadia clearly saw its antidote, but the road was not easy. Once you call out the truth for what it really is, you can’t go back, not in good conscience, that is.
One major lesson Naley and Sadia learned on their journey was that humanity has grown to fear the truth because it forces us to confront the other side of heightened awareness: the uncertainty of change. For so long, the map of possibilities has been drawn by the same systems that benefit from our lack of imagination. It makes us feel powerless, alone and abandoned, when we are anything but.
Naley By Nature has always felt like our North Star, and at times, just out of reach. But, that’s okay, because since the two started this journey together, they have come across countless people who have been fighting insurmountable odds every single day.
Naley By Nature is a mirror for the world to contemplate on, but also a distillation of the women Naley and I are becoming in the process. It’s chaotic and raw, and sometimes gets a little messy, but we don’t shy away from that.
