Wonder Woman

Poon Li-Wei Speaks to Deborah Henry, Who Has Her Heart Fixed on Making the World a Better Place, One Child at a Time.

- Poon Li-Wei

THE AGE OF DISCOVERY

To backtrack a little, her road to becoming one of the most recognisable faces around was, amusingly enough, something she had never asked for. “In school, I was always very athletic and even went through a phase where I only wore shorts and never cared much about makeup or fashion,” she recounts. In fact, it was her elder sister, whom she describes as tall and skinny, who landed magazine gigs. But all that changed when Deborah hit 15 and was stopped, in the middle of Bangsar’s Telawi area, by an agency representative. Her first reaction to being asked if she’d like to be a model? “Erm… not really,” she chuckles, in a rather droll manner. Nonetheless, she took up the lady’s offer to swing by the office for a chat – and it snowballed from there. She admits, “At that age, it was nice. I was meeting different people and earning a bit of pocket money.” Her appetite whet, she convinced her parents to allow her to gain modelling experience in London for eight months.

THE HIGHS AND LOWS