Success Story

Do you dream of having a creative career? Here’s how one woman went from the business world to best-selling author.

- Melissa Stevens

With an early childhood spent in a tiny cubicle apartment in a Wong Tai Sin temporary settlement after her family fled from the mainland to Hong Kong, pursuing a creative career was not an option for LIBBY LAM, despite a love of art.

Libby’s imagination and a few treasured hand-me-down picture books provided an escape from the hardships her family endured as they established themselves in a new city and had her dreaming of being an artist. However, expectation came into play upon her graduation from high school.

“As the eldest in my family, I was expected to replace my father as the primary breadwinner after graduating from university, so I took the ‘mainstream’ route to further my studies,” she recalls. “I attained a Master’s degree in Psychology and an MBA, and took up jobs in blue-chip and multinational companies on a stable income with a progressive career path.”

A chance visit, however, to an open day at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in 2010 proved a turning point for Libby. She turned her back on the corporate world and started studying – a move that would lead to her becoming a best-selling children’s author with her book, Crispy Children.

Turning over a new leaf

Libby says while her love of art endured while she worked in an office job, she still did not seriously consider the possibility of a creative career until after the birth of her two children.