The Other Side

Love, life and motherhood—Chriselle Lim is creating a supportive online community and building a business empire by opening up about difficult topics with her followers like never before

- Zue Wei Leong

It has been six years since Chriselle Lim last visited Kuala Lumpur. To say much has changed about both the city and the person would be an understatement.

When we last met her, the LA-based fashion and beauty influencer was in her early thirties and expecting her first daughter, Chloe. It was the beginning of her journey in reclaiming the self and drawing boundaries between her private and public life.

Now 37, divorced and a mother of two, Lim has come out on the other side of the pandemic more confident than she’s ever been. “It took me a while for me to get here,” she muses. “I know that a lot of my followers have been following me for well over a decade. They grew up seeing every part of my life from the moment I wake up.”

There is a certain irony that her six million followers on Instagram and TikTok have gotten to know her much better since she began sharing less on social media.

“Unplugging has been good for my mental health. It was hard at first. I had to learn to keep things to myself, especially as my girls were getting older. It didn’t help that there were a few people sending some nasty messages,” she says. “Maybe they felt like I owed it to them.”

That is not to say Lim has gone dark. Far from it, Lim is still active on social media. But without the pressure of constant updates, there has been a noticeable shift of tone in her content.