Influencer Suede Brooks first found refuge in the YouTube community at 12 when she became the target of extreme bullying in school. Brooks created her own YouTube channel as a coping mechanism and was able to rebuild her self-esteem through her videos. For Anti-Bullying Week 2020, Brooks spoke to Screen Shot for the Not Just a Comment campaign about her personal experience with online bullying and the impact it can have on someone’s mental well-being.

 

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The internet has helped me in more ways than I can even fathom. It has helped me find my voice and made me feel protected by always being able to reach people wherever in the world. YouTube and social media, in general, has let me build this family from all over the world and I am so blessed to be able to have people all around the world constantly look out for me and care for who I really am.

The impact that comment had on my mental well-being was astronomical at the beginning of my career because I was very young and didn’t know that the internet had a very scary and dark side to it. As I grew older, I learned that there are always going to be people that judge you for your looks, the way you dress, the things you do, etc. and you won’t always win! Now that I am 19,  I try not to let complete strangers judge me because they only see what I choose to put on the internet.

 

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I realised that bullying could take place online when I was about 12 years old and I received extremely negative comments because I had braces and a lisp due to having them at a young age. It was definitely a different experience because people don’t really have the guts to say certain things in real life, so they take it to the internet where they can type away and think that it won’t affect us, and in reality, it does, extremely.

I still get affected here and there when people comment about things I can’t control, but for the most part, I try to completely ignore them.

I think my mindfulness has grown so much the past few years due to the fact that this is my career. Before I post something I always have a small thought in the back of my head “will I get hate comments for this?” and I know this is something I have to work on every day because I like to preach how important it is to be unapologetically yourself.

Having a massive following does not really boost my confidence at all, at the end of the day, I started this as a hobby and I still look at it like that even though it is where I make the majority of my money. I am a normal 19-year-old girl just trying to navigate through this thing called life!

A few things that help me feel confident are only following people I look up to on social media and make me feel happy. This is something I always suggest doing because at one point I was only following girls that literally looked perfect all the time and they made me very self-conscious even though I knew for a fact that there was so much more behind the scenes that people didn’t see.

A few boundaries that I have set on my social platforms in order to keep some aspects of my life safe from online bullies is only posting things that genuinely make me happy. I like to spread positivity and love but at the same time try to be as authentic and me as possible.

I thought about this question a lot and there wouldn’t be anything I would want to change. The internet has helped me in situations more than real life and I am very blessed to be able to reach the world within a click of a button.

The best thing I would recommend people to do for Anti-Bullying Week 2020 is to spread positivity on all your favourite influencers’ pages, at the end of the day we are all normal people and it never hurts to compliment someone here and there!

For Anti-Bullying Week 2020, Screen Shot is supporting the anti-bullying charity Ditch The Label in its mission to tackle online abuse. Our Not Just a Comment campaign features 6 inspiring change-makers who know first hand what it’s like to receive hate online, including Suede Brooks. They shared with us the worst comments they’ve ever received as they come together to highlight the impact that words can have on each and every one of us.

Read the facts, hear the comments, share with anyone who you think might be suffering from bullying and donate if you can to help support the incredible work Ditch The Label is doing. Share the hurtful comments you’ve received online using #NotJustAComment and you too raise awareness.

As part of our partnership with Huawei and its global smartphone photography competition Next-Image awards 2020, May Tahmina Akhtar responds to the ‘Faces’ category as she invites us into her world of portraiture and helps us understand what goes on behind the scenes of capturing a captivating portrait using a smartphone.

British-Bengali Akhtar, a Manchester-based creative, content creator and makeup artist, uses her face as a canvas as she experiments with her own history and upbringing—unafraid to show her true self in a whole new way, while unpacking what the Positive Power of Creativity means to her.

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“I loved the freedom of the category and being able to express myself. My inspiration was me. I’m really working towards having a type of work that screams me and I really think the look I did is a combination of the overall looks I love doing. It shows technique but also paints a picture of my culture and heritage!”

For Akhtar, photography has become an integral part of her work. By using the Huawei P40 Pro to film and photograph her makeup look, she draws from past experiences to inspire others in finding their own identity and to highlight the power creativity can have. Documenting her styles allows Akhtar to not only better her craft but also share her talent with the world. Using the phone’s camera features, such capturing her images using the 32MP Dual View selfie camera and in the Super Resolution RAW format, Akhtar was able to depict her face and the makeup look she created for her submitted images in a resolution like no other, showcasing the intricate little details that make her face; her identity unique: “I was able to highlight the details that made this look so special for who I am, and for my identity.”

Do you have a powerful portrait to share? Submit pictures of your creations taken on your Huawei smartphone to the Huawei Next-Image awards 2020 for a chance to win a creation fund of up to $10,000 USD.

After dropping out of her integrated masters and while waiting for different courses to start, Akhtar focused her attention on makeup, amassing over 40,000 followers across social media by posting simple and aesthetically pleasing makeup videos and photographs that encouraged more people to reflect on their heritage, their individualism and their creativity in unique ways. Akhtar sent out a clear message to her followers: you can do this too.

Akhtar saw her opportunity to further her approach to makeup while also redefining her British-Bengali origins: “I used to think makeup was boring and everyone did the same thing. But since finding the editorial side of it on social media and seeing the artistry behind it and how different people’s style of makeup was, I began to do simple but graphic liner looks to express my style in a way modest clothing sometimes couldn’t!”

With the power of photography at our fingertips, capturing unique portraits is something each and every one of us can do. As Akhtar says, “Makeup is so free—you can do whatever you feel like doing.”

To achieve and capture makeup looks as cheerful and fun as Akhtar’s, experimentation is key. Faces are unique to each and every one of us, and the real power lies in the ability to celebrate our differences. “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes as you can make a look out of it or run it out—it’s not the end of the world!” explains Akhtar. Using the Huawei P40 Pro’s Field-of-view fusion zoom has allowed Akhtar to capture her own interpretation of self-portraiture, adding her own mark on her ideas of faces, beauty and portraiture.

Last tip from the pro? Always remember that, whatever you decide to create, it is by capturing your creativity that you will make it stand out. Whether in makeup or in photography, “use your face as a canvas.”

Akhtar uses makeup to share her culture and heritage through captivating portraits. What will you share about you? We want to know! Create your own narrative using your Huawei smartphone and submit your image to the Huawei Next-Image awards 2020 for a chance to win a creation fund of up to $10,000 USD.