In a letter to herself and other women, actress Rui En got candid about the everyday issues and insecurities that women face.

She wrote, “I wish you spent less time beating yourself up in your head. I wish you didn’t blame yourself for things not within your control. I wish you stopped comparing. I wish you stopped magnifying everything you felt was wrong about the way you looked. I wish you saw, felt and believed how beautiful you are.”

Our bodies are worth celebrating, and triathlete Choo Ling Er, who recently became a mum, shared a post that did just that, with a reminder to ‘always celebrate ourselves, no matter how big or small.’

Referencing a line from the poet Atticus, actress and entrepreneur Sheila Sim paid tribute to the strong women who came before her, and also shared her hope to be a role model for her two daughters Layla and Skyla.

For singer-songwriter Ming Bridges, empowerment comes from being able to celebrate our choices and do what we love.

She captioned her photo, “To all of us beautifully unique individuals who express ourselves in all shapes and sizes and colours and mediums – let’s celebrate our choice to do whatever it is we love to do and do it unapologetically, and support each other to do the same.”

Melody Chen celebrated IWD with photos of her fitness journey after giving birth to twins, while keeping it relatable and motivational.

“Every person’s body is different and your weight is subjective to how healthy you feel with it,” she wrote. “Metabolism does slow down as we age but I’ve learnt that living a sedentary lifestyle and having bad eating habits ( like skipping meals! ) will slow it down even further and ultimately affect our health.”

She added, “I am still a work-in-progress, both mentally and physically, as I power through to the rest of my 40s, but here’s a little nudge from me to you that ‘You can do this too’.”

Entrepreneur Ember Yong, mother to Instagram stars and MoMo (Monoamniotic-Monochorionic) twins Leia and Lauren, offered a look into the life of mums and how tough it is to be a parent, especially when the kids fall sick.

“This is real life,” she captioned. “Coping with 3 kids taking turns to fall sick for the past 2 weeks. Parenting is hardly what you see on socials. As much as we like sharing positive moments, parenthood comes with its fair share of frustratingly messy, chaotic and physically/emotionally draining times.”

Beauty influencer and entrepreneur Sahur Saleim revealed one thing that made her who she was — her resilience.

She shared,” I think my younger self would simply not believe the things we’ve been through – AND come out even stronger from. So here’s to strong women. May we know them, may we be them and may we raise them.”

If you thought it was a dress, you thought wrong. Joscelin Yeo, four-time Olympian as well as Nominated Member of Parliament (2009 to 2011), shared a photo that showed the familiar female symbol given a welcomed makeover.

Fun fact: The image is part of the ‘It Was Never a Dress’ campaign created by US software company Axosoft for the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference in 2015, which later went viral.

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