Who am I

My name is Zainah Yousef and I’m an author based currently in Canada, but I was born and raised in the United States and grew up near corn fields and tractors in the state of Ohio. 

After finishing high school a year early, I decided to go to university in Canada, picking Ottawa to study life sciences. While I was studying, I found that science was simply not where my heart was at, so I took a leap of faith went all the way to Montreal, Quebec to study in Montreal in JMSB at Concordia University.

Currently, I study finance and I run YouTube channels and work on this blog, my books, and other side projects. I’m very passionate about video games, hence my channel DZSH Gaming. I’m also very passionate about history and related topics. 

I presented a TedEd talk back when I was in high school regarding human rights. I also won two scholarships for academic excellence and graduated early. I started university at 17 years-old. Needless to say, that was an interesting conversation point for everyone involved. I was also invited to speak at a panel of writers during Muslim Awareness Week 2021 in Montreal, Quebec. I am currently a member of the Quebec Writer Federation. On top of this, I was invited to read my works at an Open Mic in Montreal and hosted a talk about the writing process of different authors. 

When I was still a student in Ottawa, I also wrote an article regarding the accidental discovery of LSD. This article won second place in a writing contest and was published in The Catalyst, which is the University of Ottawa’s science magazine. It was called “LSD: The Strange and Twisted Tale of this Accidental Hallucinogenic.”

My entire life, I’ve been writing. In my free time, I write. I would write during classes back in high school and during lectures in university. I write at 2 am and 7 pm and every time in between. I can’t see myself wanting to do anything else for the rest of my life. That’s why I decided to start this website. To show you all my world building and who I am as a person. So that you can connect with me not just through the pages of my books but through me.

I want to cultivate an amazing community full of amazing people. That’s my goal: To create a community where everyone can enjoy telling stories. And I hope to encourage many others out there to start writing their stories.