Women are like seasons. Every one of them is beautiful and every season you will learn something about yourself that you might not know before. Don’t be afraid to keep trying new things no matter what age you are. Try to get out of your comfort zone and you’d be surprised what you are actually capable of. Also, I know it is normal for us to compare ourselves to people on social media—everyone is sharing the highlights of their life and it is very easy to get caught up in that—but always remember to tell yourself to snap out of it because everyone is dealing with something even if they don’t advertise it.
I myself look up to a number of people and one of them is Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh. She is unafraid to speak her mind, knows what she wants and is very clear with her direction. I just have so much respect for her. I also really like Chrissy Teigen for a myriad of reasons. She is funny, loud and she loves cooking, as do I, and I think it is amazing how she pivoted from that to publishing her own cookbooks, starting her own cookware line and making her own express cake mix products. It is very interesting to watch her grow as a businessperson. I, too, have a dream of getting myself involved in the food industry.
That being said, I am currently very much focused on Handmade Heroes as it has been around for eight years now and we are due for a brand refresh. My partners and I started the label when we were in our early twenties and as we grow older, the brand grows with us. So we are going to introduce that to everyone this midyear. Other than that, I’m looking forward to do a little bit of travelling this year. I do have some travel plans sketched out and they’re more of personal trips but I guess I’ll see where they take me— who knows if I’d find something worth working on for some content creation.
But the scene these days isn’t like what it used to be in the blogging days. Things have definitely changed and they are changing so fast I sometimes feel like I can’t even keep up anymore. I noticed that when I was a blogger, there was a lot more time and effort being put into an article or a post, and you were more connected with your audiences because everyone would take the time to read everything that you had to say. People would start commenting because they actually read and stayed with it from the beginning to the end, which was really nice. The downside was it took a bit more time to build the audience.
Then came Instagram and things started to move at lightning speed. Sure, it’s easier to build an audience now but I don’t feel as connected to them as I did before. People can comment on your posts but you probably wouldn’t have the faintest idea who they are. They might be following you this week and gone the next. They come and they go, they’re in and they’re out. But you can’t take it personally because it is just a very different world altogether. And then now you have TikTok, which is a completely different ball game. I guess it is a bit on the emotional, interpersonal side—it’s just not there.
PHOTOGRAPHED BY CHEE WEI
CREATIVE DIRECTION BY IAN LOH
STYLED BY AMELIA TAN
HAIR CKAY LIOW
MAKEUP CAT YONG
This article was first published in the print edition of Grazia Malaysia March 2023.