At 23, beauty influencer Cedra Ammara stands at the threshold of the next phase of her life – newly engaged and with a personal fashion brand in the works, the world holds endless possibilities
Every great odyssey begins with a single, electric moment of transformation – the instant when everything familiar gives way to everything possible. For the sweet-natured Cedra Ammara, one of Dubai’s top beauty influencers – with a devoted 10 million-strong following across her social media platforms – that moment is now. Our cover star is standing at the edge of her most dynamic chapter yet: engaged to fellow influencer Ramy Hamdan, she is building a brand of her own and carrying with her the extraordinary bond of sisterhood that has been her compass from the very beginning.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
Ammara was eleven years old when the map of her life was first redrawn. Moving from Syria to Sweden with her two sisters – the eldest Narin, the youngest Sherin – Ammara arrived in a place that was cold and foreign and entirely unknown.
There she faced the challenges of a different language, different school, different culture – a different everything. But the one thing the trio had was each other. And, as it turned out, that was more than enough. “We were linked since we were very young, way before we moved to Sweden,” she says, her voice warm with the certainty of someone who has never had to question where her foundation lies. “But I would say we became even closer when we moved there – because that’s when we started our YouTube channel, because we had literally nothing to do and didn’t know anyone. It was a way for us to also deal with culture shock, to find a way to just have fun, create some videos and connect with people online.” Those videos sparked something none of the sisters could have anticipated. Their channels exploded. The comments flooded in. Views soared. Today their combined total reach connects them to over 72 million followers. The three girls from Syria who had started filming “just for fun” were suddenly navigating a new kind of odyssey entirely – the dazzling, and also daunting world of digital fame. “We were so confused,” Ammara recalls with a laugh. “We were like, why are we getting so many comments, so many views – what’s happening?”
Zimmerman; Jewellery: Parure Atelier Outfit: Zimmerman; Jewellery: Parure Atelier
A TALE OF THREE SISTERS
To understand Ammara, you must first understand what she is made of – and she is made, in no small part, of her sisters. The three of them are so alike in appearance that strangers routinely mistake them for triplets, a case of mistaken identity that the beauty influencers delight in taking advantage of when the mood strikes them. “Sometimes we prank people,” Ammara admits with barely suppressed delight. “It can just be easier, as it happens so often, that we don’t correct people and just go with it, because it’s so funny that people think that.” But the three of them are, in truth, wonderfully distinct. Ammara, who is the middle sister, describes their personalities with the affectionate precision of someone who has spent a lifetime in gloriously close quarters. “I’m the calmest one in the family,” she declares with perfect composure. “If the world around me is going crazy, I just let it wash over me, I don’t let it get to me.” Her younger sister Sherin, she says, is the creative one – “she gives mummy vibes so much, but at the same time she’s funny.” And Narin? “Narin is the funniest one in the family. She is always joking.” What the trio have built together is rare: a creative universe rooted in genuine love and affection. While Narin has launched her beauty line and Sherin focuses her energy on the skincare space, Ammara is charting her own course into the world of fashion. “Being the middle sister, I’ve learned that each one of us has a unique personality,” she reflects, “and I’ve learned how to deal with the different characteristics.”
Outfit: Magda Butrym; Jewellery: Parure Atelier
A KISMET MOMENT
The start of Ammara’s love story with her fiancé is the kind that screenwriters dream up and almost nobody believes could happen in real life. And yet their iconic meet-cute was – as is almost natural for two influencers of the digital age – caught on camera. They first collided (literally) while filming a YouTube video organised by Sherin’s now-husband – Osama Marwah (often known as Ossy Marwah). A creator in his own right with 12 million subscribers on his YouTube channel alone. He had asked twenty top-tier influencers to come together for an on camera game of musical chairs. Hamdan, who counts over 5 million followers on Instagram, lost in the first round. Because, as the slender and petite Ammara tells it, he sat down on top of her. “We didn’t know each other at all, and when the music stopped he was so determined to get one of the chairs that he ended up sitting on me,” she recounts. A mortified Hamdan was very apologetic about finding himself in the lap of this slip of a girl – on camera. “He was like – ‘I’m so sorry! And I told him not to worry, that I was ok, and from there we just started talking,” she shares. And now somewhere in the archive of a YouTube channel, that exact moment is preserved forever, the first chapter in a love story that the world has been able to watch evolve from the very beginning. What followed was, by any measure, a courtship of remarkable honesty.
Outfit: Ilai Sarai;
Jewellery: Parure Atelier
The proposal, when it came, was achingly tender in its simplicity. Hamdan chose the beach – the same beach where they had their very first date. And as soon as he popped the question and she said yes, their families appeared tumbling onto the sand behind them, all joy and celebration. And again, the moment was captured for posterity and posted online, racking up more than 55 million views in less than 24 hours of it going live.
Outfit: Gemy Maalouf; Jewellery: Parure Atelier
THE WEDDING OF WORLDS
The celebrations that stretch ahead of Ammara will soon be coming hard and fast. After the engagement party that is scheduled to take place in Dubai this month, there will be the obligatory bachelorette party. Then, the pre-wedding henna party. And finally the wedding itself, which she hopes will take place in Lebanon at the start of 2027. For her engagement dress, Ammara has already decided on a Lebanese designer Hassidriss and she thinks she will also go with a Lebanese designer for her wedding dress as well, “because they’re the best at making wedding dresses”. And she speaks about her big day with the reverent certainty of a woman who has been imagining it for a lifetime. “It’s been my dream since I was a little girl to wear my wedding dress and to start a family,” she says simply. “I love babies – I’m going to have babies as soon as I get married,” She pauses, laughs softly and adds “I want a big family.” There is something touching about the young love this duo share, and there is a clear understanding that any successful union needs to have lots of give and take. This is already personified in their wedding plans. The engagement will be held in Dubai, because that is where Ammara wants it. While the wedding will hopefully take place in Lebanon, because that is where Hamdan is from. “I love being fair,” she says. Even now, at the very beginning, it’s this sort of smart relationship architecture that will build the foundation for a lasting partnership.
Outfit: Antonio Riva; Jewellery: Parure Atelier
TEN MILLION REASONS
While Ammara’s relationship with Hamdan is only a few years old, the one she has with her followers has been going on for close to a decade. And she takes it just as seriously. In an era where follower counts have become a kind of currency that inflates and detaches, Ammara’s relationship with her 10 million followers – clustered primarily across Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan – is something genuine and intimate. Snapchat, she admits, is her favourite platform for this precise reason. “Snapchat gives me the vibe that I’m actually talking to my fans. I love making real connections with them. So every time I miss them, I just go to Snap, film some stories, and talk directly to them.” She pauses, and what she says next is disarmingly sincere: “I feel they’re like my friends. They’re like my family. That’s why I love talking to them.” As she says this it doesn’t sound performative like it often does with more traditional celebrities. Her genuine desire to connect on a personal level with her followers is, in fact, the secret to their extraordinary loyalty – a mutual trust has been built over years of radical authenticity.
Outfit: IYMAA; Jewellery: Parure Atelier
For example Ammara does not recommend products she has not personally tested. She will never place a brand deal above her audience’s faith in her. “I will not talk about a product that I don’t like myself,” she says flatly. “My followers trust me a lot and I don’t take that lightly. True influence happens only when you are genuine.” But she has also, over the years, developed the armour of someone who has learned to hold the attention of millions without being diminished by it. Yes the hate comments exist; she does not pretend otherwise. “I stopped caring a long time about those posts,” she says evenly. “I know that with seven million followers that not all of them are there to support me. But at the end of the day you’re not successful if you don’t have haters. I just decided to focus my energy on the people that love me.”
Outfit: Abadia; Jewellery: Parure Atelier
ON THE HORIZON
Ask Ammara to describe her style in three words and she answers the way a woman does when she has stopped performing and simply knows who she is deep down inside: “Confident, simple and effortless.” She is, of the three sisters, the most fashion-forward – she will tell you this herself. Her weakness is heels: Christian Louboutin, Valentino, and YSL are brands she covets. And later this year the plan is to launch her own brand – moving into fashion in a manner that feels authentic to who she is and has always been. She is not yet ready to share every detail about what part of the fashion space she wants to carve out for herself, but the direction is clear and the vision will be 100 per cent hers. Near the end of our conversation, I ask Ammara what she most wants people to understand about her – the real her, beneath the filters and the follower counts and the gorgeous content. Her answer is as earnest and genuine as she is. “I want them to understand that what I’m creating is for them, and how my intention is to always be real and honest with them,” she says. “I want my followers to know that I love what I’m doing and I have so many dreams. I have so many goals I want to reach – and I hope they will come along with me on this journey.”
Senior Editor: Jessica Michault
Photographer: Amer Mohamad
Fashion Stylist: Daniel Negron
Makeup: Jean Kairouz
Hair: Rafi Fazaa
Videographer: John Melencion
Photographer’s Assistant: Yasir Ali Shah
Stylist Assistant: Anna Kandrashova
Editorial Assistant: Rawda Askar
Make up Assistant: Serenne Lichani
Lighting Assistant Isaac Badda
Equipment: The Studio Society
Flowers: Udora
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: emirateswoman.com
