Throughout her teenage years to her early 20s, Sabrina Wee struggled with her body, feeling fat and clumsy no matter how low her weight gets.
“Born with a terrible sense of coordination coupled with relentless teasing from teachers and classmates throughout my schooling years made me resent and avoid PE lessons as much as I could,” the 31-year-old founder of GOYA recalled.
“I couldn’t escape when I later got drafted into the Trim & Fit (TAF) Club, and the embarrassing TAF Club rituals (and increased teasing) made me determined to lose weight and stay off the radar of exercise. I lost weight and got out of TAF Club successfully by eating as little as possible.”
Because she wanted to avoid exercising, the only way to keep herself small and skinny was not to eat. “Unfortunately, I never felt happy or confident because I still felt inept and overweight no matter how much weight I lost. Somehow in my mind, I still looked and felt like the clumsy primary school kid who struggled to run rounds during TAF Club,” Sabrina said.
It was only five years ago when she picked up strength training as “a means to lose weight” and mainly because she could work out at her own pace and avoid running. As she got deeper into that, her focus gradually shifted towards lifting heavier and better.
“I began to have a deeper appreciation of my body and what it can achieve. The confidence I gained from moving better beats how I look and feel at my lowest weight on the weighing scale!” she added.
Although changing, our society still celebrates the ideal of skinny because clothes are still made for them. Too fat? You need to lose weight. Too strong? You need to stop working out so hard. However, Sabrina believes that we should find the right clothes that frame our body and allow us to move freely and confidently to pursue the things that matter.
Sabrina stands for freedom of movement and beauty of strength.
Speaking with many women on her journey to creating GOYA led her to believe that she is not alone in how she feels bout her body. “I believe that Cheryl Tay and Rock The Naked Truth share a strong and powerful message on appreciating the body, and I wanted to be able to encourage other women to speak up as well, and I hope to empower them through GOYA.”
On her own journey, as she grew to love and enjoy strength and movement, she realised office wear mostly felt too restrictive or unflattering on her stronger body. That was why she decided to leave her corporate job and build GOYA.
“I developed GOYA as a way to incorporate the stretchability and breathability of technical fabric into tailored designs that can carry active women professionally from day to night. I want active women to be able to move well both in and out of the gym!”
[Sabrina is wearing the Quinn Dress in Black from GOYA and the Ruffles Work heels from Stand. Use ‘istandforme’ for 15% off both brands!]
