Zainab El Sewedy, singer: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is singer Zainab El Sewedy (aka loulou). Edited excerpts from our conversation:

I’m Zainab El Sewedy, but I go by loulou on Apple Music and Spotify. I’m the youngest of four siblings, and because my three siblings are much older than me, I always felt like I had two moms and three dads growing up. Family is very important to me, so I feel like I was very fortunate in that sense.

I’m someone who really enjoys any sort of challenge. I think it comes from the idea of trying to prove other people wrong, which isn’t necessarily the best, but it’s worked so far. I’m a very curious person — I’m never satisfied with the information I have and always want to know more or see what else I can do and what potential I can explore.

I’m currently a sophomore at King’s College in London, where I’m studying international relations. Getting the chance to travel abroad for university was a priority for me to experience life outside of my bubble of privilege and get a sense of how real life actually works. It’s been transformational for me to interact with people without the context of my connections or my family. It’s how I became interested in music, and I think that’s what has made my personality as authentic to myself as I can be right now.

My morning routine changes depending on the day, but I have to spend my mornings alone. Unless I have class, I cannot interact with another human being before 1pm. I enjoy going for walks, which is one of the reasons I chose to live in London. In the morning, I have to walk for at least an hour, and I get the same coffee order I’ve had for three years: A soy milk cappuccino with cinnamon powder. I try to journal, which helps a lot with my lyrics because I frequently go back to highlight parts and think, you know, maybe this could work with this specific beat.

I read Enterprise every morning. I first started reading it in high school for my economics class. One day, I read an article on trade tariffs that saved me, and I haven’t stopped reading since.

In terms of making music, I find a beat and I just start humming while I'm walking, so I sometimes look a bit insane on the streets while I try to see what fits.

The one constant in my day is my support system, which includes my siblings and my best friends. Even in the darkest parts of my life, the five or six people that I surround myself with have helped me through so much. And they’re the reason this music is out in the first place — having people genuinely believe in me is a huge part of my confidence.

I have ADHD and I like to believe that I operate with organized chaos. There’s a lot of things that don’t appear to make sense in my routine or my living situation, but they do to me. For example, I always put makeup remover in the kitchen because I know whenever I come back home at night, I’m going to take my makeup off while I eat chocolate.

Staying focused is quite difficult for me, but staying driven is more important. I think that as long as you know what your goal is, or more importantly what you’re doing it for, it makes the biggest difference in terms of getting work done, whether that be school, work or something you’re passionate about.

I want to start understanding how I can apply what I learned in London when I come back to Egypt. I think there's a common misconception that people who leave never want to come back. But, as much as I love London and consider it a second home, there is nowhere I feel more at ease than in Egypt.

I also want to contribute to solving persistent issues in Egypt, like overpopulation, narrowing the wage gap, and even more importantly, narrowing the socioeconomic class gap. It seems impossible, but I’m sure that with people who are driven and passionate about it, there is a way to fix it.

On a professional level, what I’m most excited about is the album with my brother that’s coming out soon. It’s going to have a lot more different styles because he’s a lot more creative than I am and very experimental. I really can't wait to see how the two of us sound together.

After a long day, I switch off by watching a reality show like Love Island, even though I feel like I’m losing brain cells. Or documentaries that are about murder and serial killers. It’s true crime or utter stupidity. There's no in between.

One of the best books I ever read was Playing Nice by JP Delaney, and right now I’m reading The Judges’ List by Josh Grisham.

My brother gave me the best advice I’ve ever received: Don’t cry over things you can't control. And everything happens for a reason. They’re cliches, but once you accept that everything happens for a reason, you realize that the majority, I’d say 70%, of the things you’re stressed about aren’t even things you have any control over.