Anika Nafis, 32, Marketing Consultant

It also doesn’t help that comments from others about your appearance and weight don’t really stop, and it hurts more when it comes from people you care about, such as your immediate family who says things like I could lose some weight.

A while ago, my ex-partner tried to carry me and commented that I “weighed too much”. It wasn’t a joke and it led to a conversation about my weight, and that stung for a long time.

It wasn’t until a year ago that I saw the light. I nearly fainted on the MRT train one day because I didn’t eat and I was exercising a lot. I spoke to a friend about it and I began to see that health is more important than looking good. I’m still going to the gym now, but I am not restricting my diet. I’ve adopted a healthy approach to eating – if I want to eat something, I will.

Also, I’ve learnt that you should treat yourself like how you would treat people you care for. You wouldn’t put your loved ones down, so why would you put yourself down? Compliment yourself the same way you would compliment your loved ones. This thought made me think of all the harsh things I tell myself when I look in the mirror and I’ve since learnt not to be hard on myself!

Photography & Styling: Franz Navarrete, Timothy Chow, Coby Travis, Hosanna Swee.

Hair & Make Up: Airin Lee, Vicky Ang

Calligraphy: Trudy Zhang