As a child, Jae Liew was overweight and hence was endlessly teased by family. “When I grew older and lost a lot of weight due to dance classes and puberty, I was called names by schoolmates. This has continued throughout my entire life. People always have something to say about my weight,” said the 29-year-old actress said.

Being in the media industry is tough as you are often scrutinised by others and there is this pressure of ‘having to be a certain size for TV’. Jae’s job entails going for audition after audition and not booking jobs can wear one’s confidence down after a while.

To help her cope with it, she chose to take a more zen approach, which is to detach from those experiences and let herself be. “Dealing with rejection is part of the job,” she added.

Jae feels that body image should not be the main focus of one’s life. “You do what you need to be healthy. It’s your business. There is no winning with people. No matter what you do, someone will have something to say, but by being you, you’ll be able to answer to yourself.”

Thus, Jae stands for being authentic.

“I don’t have lofty goals to empower anyone to be very honest. I just hope that by me being my authentic self, it will cut through and hopefully, allow people to see that it’s okay to just be.”

[Jae is wearing the Quinn dress in Almond from Goya and Flower Pumps from Stand. Get 15% off both brands with promo code ‘istandforme‘; they are still operational online during this period.]