Tell us a little bit about yourself.

My name is Syazana. I’m currently a writer for Sassy Mama Singapore, the online parenting site. I’m a freelance makeup artist on the side. I work from home so a lot of my work life is basically at home. I’m usually up by 7.30 or 8am. I have my breakfast. I try my best to squeeze in a bit of yoga, about 20 minutes. I don’t do it all the time.

And then I start working at about 8.30am - I’m online, writing emails, getting stuff done for my work. Sometimes I have to go out for events. So I might step out for events halfway through the day or go out for meetings with my colleagues.

Who is your ultimate everyday girl role model?

This is super cheesy but I think it’s my mom. She’s not afraid to be unapologetically her. She’s just a great role model to me. She is such a go-getter. I’ve seen how she struggled when we were younger and now we’re in a really good place. She does work from home as well.

She does her own home-based business. She really has a lot of discipline in order to keep that going and carry it as a sustainable source of income. I think that’s really admirable. She’s just a superwoman. She’s doing everything while still running her own business.

What do you seek for when you shop?

The clothes have to be comfortable. It has to be lightweight. The fabric has to be iron-free because I hate ironing. Usually I see all this based on how it wears on the model. Sometimes there are videos of the catalogue and I like to see how the clothing moves with the model.

Otherwise I’d go to the Instagram profile of that particular brand and see how it looks on other people. I like to see their tagged photos and see how real women are wearing them. So that’s how I can gauge how it will look like on me.

I think just somebody who doesn’t think too much about what she looks like when she’s doing things or what other people think of her when she’s doing things. She’s doing everything to put herself first. I mean of course you have your loved ones and all that but loving yourself has to come first before anything else.

Putting whatever it is that’s important to you, whether its your love life or your family life, having those as your priority and being able to juggle whatever that’s going on in your professional life, I think that’s really something to look up to.

If you had one message for your 17-year-old self, what would it be?

I would say don’t worry so much about your future. Just take things as they come but at the same time know what you want in order to get to where you want to be. Just set goals and try your hardest to work towards those goals.

Just be yourself. It’s so cheesy but don’t think so much about what other people think of you. When you’re aware of what’s happening around you and how grateful you should be for all the stuff that you have and know what people are missing out on, only then will you be even more grateful for everything that you have. You’ll be able to live everyday to the fullest and know that if you don’t take the chance to take chances then you will really miss out on a lot of things.

What’s your hopes and dreams for yourself?

Just happiness and a healthy life as well as healthy relationships with my family, with my spouse.

Syazana H. is wearing Hani in Red Blue Check. Visit whimsigirl.com to get it.