‘Dearborn Girl’ Podcast Aims to Tell Stories of Women in the Community
SOURCE: PRESS & GUIDE
BY: DAVE HERNDON
Never in the history of the world has it been easier for storytellers to tell their stories to the masses.
The internet, and the widespread growth of podcasts, videos and other means of sharing information has opened up the opportunity for everyone to share their stories with the world.
That’s exactly what the trio of Yasmeen Kadouh, Rima Fadlallah and Malak Wazne are doing on their new podcast, “Dearborn Girl.”
Kadouh said she grew up in Dearborn, but rarely had a chance to hear stories of people with her similar worldview.
“It’s important to tell those stories,” she said. “To show others what we go through.”
That’s how “Dearborn Girl,” got started. The podcast, which releases a new episode every Monday, is a collaboration between her and Fadlallah. Wazne, who was interviewed for the show, joined the team to add a video component.
Kadouh and Fadlallah do the podcast interviews, while Wazne works with the subjects to make short documentaries about them.
“Essentially we created this to chronicle women’s stories in the Dearborn community,” Kadouh said. “No one is telling our stories. We wanted to reclaim the narrative to tell our stories.”
The first episode was released May 23. The podcasts are typically about 30 minutes long, and have a five-minute documentary released in conjunction with them.
Each episode features a different woman or girl from around Dearborn, plus there will be two “table talk” episodes that feature multiple guests. The first season was 12 episodes. After a short break, season two will follow as its already in production.
“It happened in a really organic way; people started reaching out to us,” Kadouh said. “It’s literally anybody and everybody.”
The only catch to being a guest is that the women featured have to be Arab or Muslim as that’s the stories the podcast is focusing on telling.
“We saw a need and found our target audience,” Fadlallah said.
None of the three women had a background in radio or podcasting prior to deciding to start the show earlier this year.
Fadlallah, 26, is an MBA student at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Wazne, 19, is an award winning videographer. Kadouh, 24, studied public health and the Middle East at UM-Dearborn before launching “Dearborn Girl” full time.
“We started in January and just kind of went from there,” Kadouh said. “It was trial and error mostly. It’s exciting and scary at the same time.”
Their first guest was Mariam Jalloul, the first person from Fordson High School to attend Harvard. Her interview was all about what it was like to be there, to return to Dearborn and her future in Washington, D.C.
The format
The interviews start with an introduction, and then go into 10 pre-approved questions for each guest. From there, the interview grows more organically based on responses.
“The audio side is an organic conversation,” Wazne said. “The documentary side is based on a single moment in the girls’ lives that changed their lives.”
Wazne has been awarded the title of “Best a Photographer” and “Best Visual Artist” by Hour Magazine’s Best Of Hour Detroit list. Her work has been published in Vogue Arabia Magazine, Buzzfeed and many other outlets. She also has been nominated for three student Emmys, invited to the White House, received a scholarship to and attended the summer film program at Northwestern University, and served in the Smithsonian Youth Council.
All three women said the podcast, which has released five episodes already, “has been received beautifully.”
“There’s been some constructive criticism,” Fadlallah said. “We’ve been pretty open.”
All three said they hope the podcast lasts for many seasons.
“There’s a whole city of girls that we want to get on,” Kadouh said. “We just haven’t had the time yet.”
What is a Dearborn Girl?
Within the Arab community, the term “Dearborn girl” has come to be used somewhat derogatorily. It generally refers to a girl from the Middle East who likely won’t venture outside of the community.
Both Kadouh and Fadlallah said they are hoping to reclaim the term and show it as a positive meaning within their community.
“Many people in our community don’t go out of state,” Fadlallah said, via phone from New York where she was working a summer internship. “We’re hoping to feature people who do and to show that the term can be a positive thing.”
Kadouh said that’s one of the reasons she wants to continue doing the show.
“We want to showcase the entire Arab community,” she said. “We want to show the community that there is more to us than how we are perceived now.”
Other guests
In addition to Jalloul, who gave the commencement speech at Harvard in 2016, guests so far have included Batoul Aoun, who fled the 2006 war in Lebanon and resettled in Dearborn as a doctor; Hanadi Fahs, a clinical social worker; Rana Elhusseini, a basketball player from Fordson heading to Edinboro University; and Fatma Wutwut, a mental health advocate.
Future guests include makeup artist Zara Makki and firefighter trainee Mariam Doudi.
The podcast is available on most podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcast, Spotify and Stitcher. The show also can be found @Dearborn_Girl on Instagram and Facebook, and on YouTube’s Dearborn Girl channel.