A woman who lost seven fingers and suffered severe burns in her teens became a social media sensation after posting makeup tutorials to help other burn victims online.
18-year-old Alima Ali, from Manningham, suffered horrific burns on 55 per cent of her body when some head lice treatments caught fire and her entire head caught fire after returning from boarding school.
Alima, who was 12 at the time, suffered third-degree burns to her face, stomach, hands, chest, back, thighs, arms and neck and said she thought she was going to die “at the time she underwent hundreds of reconstructive surgeries on her body.”
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But now, the inspiring teen has become a Tik-Tok sensation and is using her platform to help other burn victims by posting makeup tutorials online.
“At first, I just started posting videos of doing my makeup because when I first got a burn because I thought I didn’t have anyone to look up to or learn from when I first went through it, so I thought it would be helpful to others.”
“I just posted a video and it went crazy overnight. I woke up and it had hundreds of thousands of views. I wasn’t expecting that.”
The videos show Alma doing her makeup, putting on false eyelashes and recommending products to her hundreds of fans.
She now has over 800,000 followers on the video sharing platform and has garnered millions of views.
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She suffered severe third-degree burns to her face, stomach, hands, chest, back, thighs, arms and neck after coming home from boarding school to discover she had head lice and had used shampoo.
“I went to the kitchen to get to the trash and as I walked, my hair caught fire because the medicine was flammable,
“At first, I didn’t realize I was on fire until I looked in the reflection of the window and my mom started screaming. I didn’t think I’d be able to get past it.”
But now she says she’s become a better person, after all, she has passed.
“I’ve gained confidence. It made me realize that it’s not all about appearance. If people don’t like me for who I am, that’s their problem, not mine.”
Alema is set to start her university studies in Leeds this year as well as continue creating video content.