Mission Motherhood

When it comes to being a parent, its important to find your own way. Just ask Cheryl Wee.

even if her name does not go up in lights when you first hear it, chances are you would have still seen her face splashed across posters and advertorials. Be it sporting a beret promoting local English crime drama Mata Mata, flaunting her immaculate tresses for Jean Yip, or being the face of a Shark Savers Singapore campaign against shark’s fin consumption, Cheryl Wee is a notable face in the media and beauty circles here. But when she turned up at our interview cum shoot session, what struck us first was an inability to define her with certainty. Here is the likely heiress to the throne of her famous mother Jean Yip’s eponymous hair and beauty empire, yet she did not display any chutzpah so characteristic of the rich and famous. Her youthful visage (did someone say 31-years-old?) and spunky magnetism belies her role as a freshly minted mother of a baby boy of six weeks.

Sporting a svelte figure and silky movements, it appeared that she’d been spared from the ravages of pregnancy and motherhood. Decked in an easy black buttondown, slim jeans, and a face stripped of make-up, Cheryl came across more as a friend from your younger days catching up with you after a long time than a supermum striding the twin tracks of career and family. One moment she was complaining about a sudden bout of gastritis in the morning, and the next, she was excitedly sharing about her eventful childbirth experience. She recalled waiting in uncertainty, going through eight long and painful days of being two-centimetre dilated, before dilating seven centimetres within three hours and giving birth naturally.

I think that’s what being a mother is like; you put your child’s well-being before your own. Your priority is not yourself anymore."

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