Nairobi Fashion Designer With Impaired Hand Proud After Overcoming Fears, Taking Photos In Public

• For many years, fashion designer Brightstar Kasyoka struggled with taking photos in public because one of her hands has a physical impairment
• It is a fear that, to a large extend, held her back because she needed photoshoots to showcase her creations
• Despite the curious gazes from passers-by, she recently managed to conquer the fear by confronting her self-doubt and having a remarkable photoshoot in the streets of Nairobi.
• Brightstar's rise to prominence dates back two years marked by an iconic moment when a photograph captured her greet the then-Deputy President, William Ruto with the left hand

Fashion designer Brightstar Kasyoka is over the moon after overcoming one of her biggest fears ever; doing a photo shoot in public.

You see, the young talented woman has a physical impairment on of her hands, something that has often made her attract uncomfortable stairs from the public.

Brightstar is proud of herself

Given that she is in the fashion business, doing video and photo shoots is a critical part of the game, one that was a challenge for her.

However, that fear is now behind her as she managed to face it head on during a successful photo shoot on Koinange street.

That is not to say it was all rosy as, in the beginning, she spent hours to get one good photo because she kept stopping whenever someone would stare at her.

The more she kept trying, the higher her confidence grew, and soon she was comfortable enough to go through it without a care about who was staring.

"One day I might be doing commercials in the streets of New York or Paris so I better build courage now. I am so proud of myself," she said.

Mentor changed her mentality

Reached for comment, the fashionista told TUKO.co.ke that her journey to courage started a few years ago when she met her mentor who was then her client.

She recalls how the man noticed that she was struggling to hide herself and told her that she had a very bubbly personality and the world needed to know her name.

That, however, would only happen if she let go of the fear and owned herself, adding that if she went out with a defeatist mentality, the world would feed off the same.

"He walked me through a healing journey by talking to me consistently and reminding me that I am good enough," she continued.

Journey to confidence

Their journey started with him encouraging her to do videos, so she created a page but still kept doubting the decision to put herself out there.

That difficult beginning was due to the fact that a lot of the comments when she was starting were about her hand.

"It wasn't until last year June when I decided to be consistent with videos in TikTok. Every day I would try to record a video and in one years time my TikTok page grew from 7,000 followers to 250,000 followers," she said proudly.

Given her confidence issues, she decided to be doing videos indoors and it worked, but there was little progress with photos.

A day at a time

This was despite the pressure from her TikTok fans who continuously asked for photos of her outfits and she had none.

She finally gave in and agreed to her first photos in the streets, something she says made her so proud of herself.

"I hope to build my confidence to put myself out here because I love content creation but I keep starting and quitting because of internalised fears. I am taking it a day at a time," she expressed.

Brightstar greeted Ruto with left hand

Brightstar became a household in 2021 when photos of her greeting then-Deputy President William Ruto with her left hand went viral.

In the wake of the development, she revealed that having one impaired hand made her struggle to fit into a society that believes greetings should be with the right hand.

The fashion designer also disclosed that the challenges pushed her mind to hunger for success as a way of dealing with the impairment.