'We don't live for ourselves': Motherhood helped Cheryl Wee fight eating disorders
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'Nosotros don't live for ourselves': Motherhood helped Cheryl Wee fight eating disorders
CNA Luxury's Dec digital cover star and Jean Yip scion opens up well-nigh how her family and husband got her to meet her truth – past looking beyond herself.
Cheryl Wee and Roy Fong are partners romantically and professionally. (Photo: Aik Chen)
Having majored in psychology in university, information technology wasn't difficult for Cheryl Wee to recognise the symptoms of body dysmorphia disorder (BDD) and bulimia.
What was challenging, withal, was accepting that these mental health disorders were her ain struggles.
"At the dorsum of my head, I knew I had this problem," the starlet–turned-entrepreneur told CNA Luxury. "But I couldn't really accept that."
Wee, then the newly-minted lead extra of the 2022 Aqueduct 5 drama series Mata Mata, was alternating between starving herself for days and bingeing on cake. She avoided looking at herself in the mirror because it made her feel uncomfortable.
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"I was telling myself that I just wanted to be healthy, or that I wanted to kick-start a healthy diet. I had all these crook days and all these fad diets that I thought I should exist following," she said. "And that it's all office of my work that I should be looking a sure way."
"I just didn't desire to admit it to myself," she said. But that was earlier she took control of who Cheryl Wee was.
FINDING LOGIC IN A FOG
Being the movie-perfect scion of Jean Yip Group founders Jean Yip and Mervin Wee probably did not assistance. Jean Yip, which started in 1982 every bit a hairdressing salon in Katong, has grown to become a dominant player in the slimming and dazzler industry, boasting outlets across Southeast Asia and in Communist china.
"I was crying when I would eat a normal 'human' portion – and the fact that I was crying was not normal."
Wee's married man Roy Fong – her boyfriend at the time – and father would "try and talk some sense" to her.
"They told me to try and focus not so much on my 'inner' struggles but more than on the 'outside'. I remember Roy saying that it's important to not identify then much focus on myself and instead focus on other people," she explained.
"I felt that these problems I had, like the BDD, were as well because I was a bit self-absorbed about the way I looked, and how people looked at me. Then, past transferring my free energy to helping other people, I think that really helped."
"I was crying when I would eat a normal 'human' portion – and the fact that I was crying was not normal."
She also sought the assist of a psychologist and a psychiatrist whom she used to intern for. They encouraged her to go on a nutrient diary to keep track of what she ate and the portion sizes, which, co-ordinate to Wee, "fabricated things very logical".
The four-year roughshod bike was eventually broken when she became significant with her first child in 2017.
"I recollect the biggest breakthrough for me was when I was pregnant," said Wee. "I was no longer eating – or not eating – for myself. I now had another life inside of me and I had to eat proper food."
Today, the proud mother of 18-calendar month-old Marc and three-calendar month-old Emma fully embraces her curves.
YOU CAN'T Care WHAT PEOPLE Remember
Having struggled with these debilitating trunk image issues, Wee founded Cheryl Westward Wellness and Weight Direction, a chain that aims to help others "be aware and conscious well-nigh good for you living instead of existence obsessed with weight loss".
Her notable shift from ingenue to businesswoman was best-selling when she bagged the Pulsar award at the 2022 Women Entrepreneur Awards, which celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit of women.
"I wasn't born into a successful, really well-to-exercise family. I saw how hard it was for my parents to achieve what they have and go who they are today."
Indeed, the journey to condign dominate lady following in her beauty mogul mother's footsteps was non an easy 1. And she'd beloved to exist able to speak to that fresh-faced starlet who won commencement runner-up in the Miss Chinese International 2022 pageant.
"I would say to her: 'Don't think as well much or care too much near what other people remember of you lot, in terms of your weight or how you look'," she said. "You tin never satisfy everybody, in terms of how you look. To some people, I may be besides thin. To other people, I may exist too fatty."
"I would tell myself to really just focus on working on my talent, my skills, and on what I can deliver to the audience. This is a journey," she said. "Whatever will exist, will be."
It'south a journey that has taught the 32-yr-old a multitude of life lessons.
"One lesson is to really see myself as who I am. And to love and respect myself for what I am, equally well as focus and piece of work on my skill prepare. I think that is more than of import than anything else."
For a girl who was "told quite a number of times that I can't deed", one can't help but curiosity at Wee'southward perseverance in an unforgiving industry.
And if you reckon it all came piece of cake because of her famous parents, Wee would like to gear up the tape straight.
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"I wasn't born into a successful, really well-to-do family. I saw how hard it was for my parents to attain what they have and get who they are today," she said.
"I'm very fortunate to be able to run into my parents grow their business organisation. I volition say that that it doesn't matter whether they are famous or not. As parents, they take imparted a lot of good values to me, such as determination and perseverance."
Family MATTERS
Information technology'due south no wonder why Wee cites her female parent as one of her personal heroes.
"She keeps us all together. I think that in itself keeps all of united states of america very grounded," said Wee. "My mom's a very difficult worker and she'south very motivated and driven. I see her as my benchmark, and a lot of times that pushes me because she's way more hardworking than I am."
"My mom and my maternal grandmother are heroes to me considering they are both very strong women who accept a very strong career mindset – and at the same time, they accept a lot of love for their own family. They really requite everything they have to their families."
Wee besides sees husband Roy every bit a hero because "he has a very good balanced take on things, be it family or piece of work."
According to his wife, the architect turned Jean Yip Group employee is constantly learning news things and thinking of new ideas to ameliorate himself and the business.
"He's always on the go, and no matter how difficult the situation, he tries to pull through. To me, that is pretty heroic," she gushed.
Roy is also the person who, according to Wee, has dished out the best advice she's received.
"He told me that we don't live for ourselves. We alive in a community and we live for other people too," she said. "That's what I used to be: Living for myself. And that'southward how I ended up with the eating disorder."
"I started to remember of myself as a mother for my kids, and as a wife and as a daughter. I thought about all these responsibilities I had, simply in a good way."
"It'due south when you start living for other people... Like when I started to think of myself as a mother for my kids, and equally a wife, equally a daughter. I thought near all these responsibilities I had, just in a good manner. Information technology's when we continuously requite back to people, and be of service to people, and focus on other people, I call up that's what really takes away our self-absorption and makes united states a lot happier."
Are there any words of wisdom she might like to throw back into the universe, peradventure specifically to other aspiring young entrepreneurs?
"The best career advice is something my dad said to me: 'In life, you take to have an MBA,'" she said. "This MBA is not a university certificate but a 'Mop-Broom Attitude'. Considering no matter what y'all practice, whether you're an actress or an entrepreneur or whatever you cull to do in life, a mop-broom mental attitude is all near having the humility to serve ane another and be humble."
"I think that's really a virtue that doesn't just carry you a very long way but, as well, information technology keeps you happy and contented. At the terminate of the day, yous really are on world temporarily. So, yeah, exist humble. That'southward really important."
Style Editor: Serene Seow; Art Direction: Jasper Loh; Photography: Aik Chen; Styling: Lena Kamarudin; Styling Assistance: Depression Rin; Makeup: Peter Khor using Estee Lauder; Hair: Ling Mentum/Jean Yip Salon
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/people/cheryl-wee-husband-roy-fong-jean-yip-business-176931
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