Seeing Life Differently: Zaakirah Nayyar Muhammad on Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Disability Advocacy, and Radical Inclusion

As we observe World Blindness Month this October following Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in September, our editorial lens turns to the extraordinary stories that shape our communities, challenge our perspectives, and redefine what resilience looks like.

For this Women for the Culture feature, we sit down with Zaakirah Nayyar Muhammad, a media strategist, disability consultant, podcaster, and survivor. Her very name tells a story: Zaakirah means the reflective remembrance, Nayyar means bright light, and Muhammad means praiseworthy. Together, they form an intentional blueprint for a life lived out loud, on purpose, and entirely on her own terms.

Zaakirah’s journey with cancer began before she could even form memories of her own. At just nine months old, a routine set of family photographs captured in the South Florida sunlight revealed a subtle warning sign: a strange white glow reflecting in her pupils.

When her mother brought her concerns to their pediatrician, she was brushed off and told not to worry. Trusting her maternal intuition, she sought a second opinion, and that decision saved Zaakirah’s life. Doctors diagnosed retinoblastoma, a rare childhood eye cancer, and performed immediate surgery to remove her right eye. Subsequent radiation treatments resulted in mild hearing loss, leading Zaakirah to wear hearing aids from the age of three.

"If something doesn't look right, say something. Don't brush it off," Zaakirah urges parents. "Many parents have dismissed unusual signs in their child's eye, assuming it was a camera glitch or trick of the light. Trust your instincts when it comes to your child's health, it's always better to be safe than sorry."

Growing up, Zaakirah’s early years were shaped by the quiet navigation of difference. She didn't realize she was visibly distinct until an elementary school classmate pointedly asked what was wrong with her eye. It wasn’t until she was around seven years old that she sat down with her mother to uncover the full story through old journal entries and photographs.

At age five, she was gifted her first camera, a pivotal moment that planted the seed for a nearly two-decade career in visual storytelling. Traveling across more than 15 countries and half of the United States became both a method of artistic expression and a profound tool for personal healing.

Her heritage provided an equally rich foundation. With Caribbean ancestry on her mother's side descending from the half-brother of Frederick Douglass, and indigenous heritage on her father's, identity was always central. As adults, both of her parents independently converted to Islam, grounding their family in a faith that sustained them through the invisible burdens of survivorship.

Faced with spaces where she was frequently the only Black Muslim woman navigating both media and disability, Zaakirah decided to build her own room. She established See Life Different Media, an umbrella platform supporting marginalized voices across publishing, podcasting, and digital content creation.

Her visionary leadership recently expanded into the See Life Different Panel, featuring powerhouse voices like Lisa Willis, Lana Joseph, and Derra Howard, tackling vital conversations around invisible disabilities, epilepsy awareness, mental health crises, and the prevention of hearing loss across industries.

Now, as a media strategist and disability consultant, Zaakirah is actively reshaping how organizations operate by advocating for closed captioning and descriptive alt-text in digital spaces, and ensuring proactive accessibility inquiries are built into registration forms for in-person events.

As Zaakirah looks toward her next chapter, which includes a documentary raising awareness for eye cancers and expanding accessibility standards globally, her core message remains crystal clear:

"Resilience isn't always a bad thing, disability is not a negative word, and empathy can go a very long way."