Born and raised mostly in Kuwait, to an American mother and Kuwaiti father, I spent a lot of my youth surrounded by censorship. Scenes were edited out of movies, while book and magazine passages were blackened with Sharpies—I wondered why.

It made me curious and highlighted the importance of expression to me at an early age. Details, knowledge, words, photos: I wanted to craft the messages I saw, not be dictated to. But how would I do it?

At age 10, I learned how to read and write English. The next summer, while other kids played outside, I sat glued to my twin bed inhaling books as if they were the very oxygen I required to keep on living.

My love of words was born—be they in a lengthy novel, or a glossy magazine ad. They all told a story, and I wanted to do the same. 

At age 11, while living in the U.S. for a couple of years, I got a typewriter for Christmas. Computers were starting to catch on, but they were still pretty basic and there was no Internet yet. I loved my typewriter, and I spent most of my time pounding out letters to pen pals I'd never met.