In honour of International Women’s Day (happening on 8 March 2015), we’re incredibly proud to present this list of boundaries-pushing personalities who make our city, and our lives, better. And by “better”, we also mean cooler, tastier, healthier, more beautiful, and more creative. Say hello to your pot of gold for self-motivation as we share inspiring stories from these 11 women in Singapore.
Charlotte Cain
You probably know her as the founder and organiser of wildly successful pop-up bazaar Boutiques (we’re big fans), but Charlotte has her fingers in many pies – or rather, pots. The big-hearted woman is an established ceramic artist that has exhibited her works around the globe, a foster parent to three children from Sanctuary House – read about her involvement here, and gives back to society through Boutiques.
Chloe Chick
In an interview with Secret {W} Business, Chloe reveals what she does when she gets into a mental funk: climb a mountain (whoa). That’s hardly a surprise, given her two social enterprises, Peak Foundation and Sisu Girls. The former organises global mountain expeditions for women while raising funds for local communities, and the latter offers running, skateboarding and rock-climbing courses for girls.
Claire-Louise Jedrek
Just try to keep up with this adrenaline junkie. The British-born Singaporean stunner is Singapore’s only female racecar driver, and recently finished seventh place at the Malaysian Super Series 2014. She was the only female driver among the 30 contestants – not bad, huh? In case you’re wondering how she maintains that killer bod, Claire runs marathons and works out religiously at the gym. The multi-tasker is also a TV presenter — pretty does come with brains after all.
Emily Hamilton (left)
Emily Hamilton
We have a deep admiration for Emily, so much so that we got her to speak at our first HoneyTalks session. Her success stories with multi-million dollar businesses Bellabox and Skinnymint, are pretty amazing: in less than two years, Bellabox counts subscribers in the tens of thousands, and has received $7 million in investor funding, while Skinnymint boast close to 90,000 likes on Facebook. She makes us want to take the leap of faith and do our own thing – with her tips, no less.
Irene Hoof
It’s one thing to be able to say you have a blog; it’s a whole new level of awesome to be able to say your blog has grown to a brand consisting of a home lifestyle website, a blog for the design-conscious parent, an online store, a cool print gazette, a creative studio for workshops, and a brick-and-mortar showroom chockfull of beautiful things. Well, that’s what Irene did with the highly addictive Bloesem. Applause, please.
Jolie Michelle Ow
What does yoga and art have in common? Jolie has a thing or two to say on the subject, like how they are flexible, creative, and challenges all of your senses and emotions. That’s also her motivation behind opening CANVASS, an art and yoga studio that lets kids and adults sketch freely and stretch fully. What’s even more inspiring is that CANVASS support children’s homes, hospitals, and charity organisations in Singapore and other countries through mission trips.
Karen Tan
It seems like Karen Tan has a Midas touch. She does her magic Pocket Projects, her creative consultancy and management company that specialises in the regeneration and adaptive reuse of distressed urban areas and heritage buildings. Early last year, she stumbled upon the abandoned Golden Theatre, and decided that it would diversify the city’s film offerings as a new, independent cinema screening a mix of underground, classic, and local movies. The Projector was born many months later, drawing a hipster crowd into its retro-chic setting, and serving them great cinematic works with craft beer. The place is so cool it hurts.
Li Ruifang
Running a hawker stall isn’t glamorous, and it certainly isn’t the kind of career many uni-educated Singaporeans dream about. But sassy girl Lee Ruifang – she’s an economics and finance graduate, mind you – had dived straight into the trade with a mission to preserve her grandfather’s prawn mee legacy, and does it with aplomb. The noodles at 545 Whampoa Prawn Noodles don’t lie.
Majella Skansebakken
Parents know this too well: it’s hard to buy furniture for the little ones. You want the best for them – items that are durable, special, safe, and most importantly, reasonably priced. Ticking all of these boxes is Majella Skansebakken’s store Ni-Night, a children furniture specialist that offers a huge range of home products online and at their Joo Chiat showroom. You can even shop over the phone, if you like. Besides being a lifesaver to parents, we love that Ni-Night also organises donation drives, build houses in Cambodia, train local communities, and employs women from South Africa to make beautiful picnic blankets – way to go Majella!
Natalie Eng
Truth be told, we’re pretty jealous of Natalie. The pastry chef and self-trained food photographer lives between Singapore and Paris, where she does most of her baking, writing and oh-so-pretty photography. Her winning CV includes stints at the esteemed and highly reputable Ferrandi, l’Ecole Française de Gastronomie of Paris, Antoinette Singapore, Bar Stories Singapore as well as grand Dorchester Collection Hôtel Le Meurice in Paris. Did we also mention that she’s only 22?
Tjin Lee
Seems like there’s no slowing down for this already highly successful entrepreneur, who’s also a mother of one. Tjin, the managing director for Mercury group of companies, has recently founded CRIB, Singapore’s first business and lifestyle incubator targeted at women, and revamped the annual fashion extravangaza Audi Fashion Festival into Singapore Fashion Week after six years. Sounds like a hectic schedule to us, with all these going on for her, but Tjin manages to look amazing everytime we bump into her (we know, we’re neighbours). If you are what you eat, give us what she’s eating in truckloads, thank you.