Class of 2025: Editor In Chief Olivia Phillips Reflects On The Best Advice She Has Received This Year
From Youssra to Charlotte Tilbury, we look back at the sage insights from this year’s Bazaar Arabia talents
I got asked the other day what advice I’d give someone who sees my career as aspirational. I’ve spent two decades being the one asking the questions, so it was weird having the Choo on the other foot. I froze, and then quickly realised how much of my job is gathering the wisdom of others rather than ever dispensing my own.
Every month, I get to speak to some of the most extraordinary people on the planet – my very own Batphone of brilliance – and my privilege is to pass their hard-won lessons on to you. So, as we close 2025 and inevitably look back on what it has taught us, I wanted to return to the voices that shaped these pages, stayed with me, and will hopefully inspire you as you head into next year.
In January, Elyanna reminded me that grit is a practice, not a moment: “I kept fighting until I got what I wanted… but it’s also about having the right people around you. I cannot afford non-believers.”
Rawdah Mohamed echoed the same, as well as something universally resonant: the power of self belief and the people who hold you up. “Create your own support system… the ones fighting for you when you’re not in the room.”
Teyana Taylor distilled her philosophy to two words: patience and prayer, while Charlotte Tilbury, never one for half-measures, gave us a reminder I have thought about all year: “Moderation is the most overrated virtue… You’ve got one life – live it to the full.”
This month’s cover star, Natalia Vodianova spoke to responsibility and balance: “I do my best, and there has to be peace in that process, otherwise I will have nothing left to give.”
Saba Mubarak offered both grounding and soaring perspectives: “Sometimes you need to reboot, reset, just disappear and find your own voice again,” but also that real change can begin with motherhood, and the responsibility and honour of just “creating one good person.”
And then there’s Youssra, who gave us one of the warmest truths of the year: joy matters; being yourself matters even more. “Just let your hair down and be you. No retouching.”
Some reminded us that possibility is abundant. May Calamawy said, “The world makes you think there’s not enough for everyone… That’s a lie.” Nour Rizk reframed representation not as pressure, but as purpose. And Manolo Blahnik told us that he hopes to be both liked and respected – “but I don’t care if I am neither.”
Others brought us back to what endures. Sawsan Badr shared that wisdom passed from woman to woman is an inheritance, but “the real challenge is figuring out how to share it so it stays alive,” and Haya Sawan crystallised what growth really is: “What you’re not changing, you’re accepting.”
If this year has taught me anything, it’s that success is rarely, if ever, just the glossy end result. It’s simply, as Mo Amer put it, “not quitting.” Success is showing up, evolving, and trying again. Exactly what new years are for, no?
From the Harper’s Bazaar Arabia December 2025 Issue
