Sonia Chew believes in the power of authenticity in today’s image-obsessed world, and of staying true to oneself while keeping calm and collected. Effervescent, bubbly and candid, the multi-talented TV and radio presenter talks to Options about navigating life and career.
SINGAPORE (Jan 31): Dressed in a white tee tucked into jeans, Sonia Chew looks like a million bucks. In contrast to her casual get-up, her feet are the instantly recognisable, blue, embellished Manolo Blahnik stilettoes which were worn by Carrie Bradshaw in the first Sex and the City movie. As Options points them out, the 27-year-old laughs. She had not noticed they were the same ones in the movie until a friend told her, because she had not seen the movie. She does, however, eagerly tell us that the heels, despite their height, are very comfortable.
To be sure, Chew gives off a bold, edgy vibe that is mixed with playful femininity, but it is hard to pin down her style – her Instagram page, where she has 137,000 followers, is an eclectic mix of high-fashion edginess, feminine glam, and athleisure. She appears in pictures both dolled-up and dressed-down. In interviews, she is warm and candid, easily sharing details of her life, love and career; yet she is razor-sharp and focused on her goals. Perhaps it is this intriguing blend of rugged and feminine that is appealing about Chew, who has been in the industry as a TV/radio presenter and personality for close to seven years now. She hosts a daily drive-time show from 4pm-8pm on Radio 987 FM, and has a strong following on the airwaves and social media, aside from also hosting the award-winning travel series, TravelSSBD. And as if that is not quite a lot to do already, she has even forayed into the F&B industry with her first restaurant, IZY FOOK, which she opened in 2019.
This multi-talented lass definitely wears many hats, and one of those closest to her heart is being a friend of the brand to iconic watchmaker TAG Heuer. When she was a teenager, her parents gave Chew her first-ever luxury timepiece, a TAG Heuer Aquaracer with a mother-ofpearl dial, which she treasures and keeps till this day. “My journey with TAG Heuer began even before this ambassadorship. It was my first proper timepiece, you know, and it marked an occasion, [when] you’ve achieved something,” she recalls. “And even though I come from quite a humble background, my parents insisted on me having this watch, which to me was quite an expensive one for a student to [wear] to school!”
Even going with her parents to choose the watch was intimidating at first. “I felt really bad, because I didn’t want them to spend so much money on me. But for them, it was because [they thought] it was important to show me that I had achieved something, that they love me very much and you know, it [the achievement] is something to remember.” Chew was gifted the Aquaracer about 10 years ago, and it was admittedly an unconventional choice for a 17-year-old. “There were so many choices, but from the moment you try it [the watch] on, you just know, you feel good, it fits well, and it gives a certain vibe; something that resonated with you at that point in life.”
As such, Chew has always linked the qualities of determination, hard work, and love with the cherished TAG Heuer timepiece and indeed, the brand. “[TAG Heuer watches] resonate with me because they’re elegant and edgy at the same time, which I like to think, that is me,” she says. “I’m elegant when the occasion calls for it, but it’s also very bold and unique with an understated beauty, that isn’t flashy. It’s a quiet confidence and I like that, because I aim to have that as well – a sturdy, quiet confidence in all aspects of my life.”
Chew now owns several TAG Heuer pieces, of course, in addition to her very first. At the interview, she is wearing a piece from TAG Heuer’s Monaco series, which she says goes with everything she wears, and reflects her own not-quite feminine, edgy style. “I feel it embodies all the precision, the edginess and craftsmanship qualities in one timepiece,” she says.
Never Cracking
Despite her jam-packed and hectic life, nothing seems to faze this husky-voiced beauty. Indeed, being a TAG Heuer ambassador, she feels that her outlook on life resonates with the brand’s tagline of “Don’t crack under pressure”; in fact, being a part of this brand means she takes her role very seriously. “I think it’s very simple for me to be my most authentic self, to let my audience understand how TAG Heuer is a part of my daily life. [It’s about] not feeling challenged when there are adversities in life – to never take ‘no’ for an answer, especially if it’s something truly important to you,” she says of her role as TAG Heuer ambassador.
Staying relatable to her audience and followers is key. “I feel it’s [part of my] responsibility to relate to my audience, because they’ve grown up with me in the process of me growing up in my career, so I want to remain as relatable to them as possible,” she says. “I feel my biggest role is to keep inspiring them to reach for greater heights in life, whatever stage they’re in at the moment.” “At the risk of sounding cheesy, I want to say to my audience, never lose yourself, and stay as genuine as possible. Because in this line of work, you will realise that there are not that many people around you whom you can consider your genuine close friends,” she adds.
However, the TAG Heuer tagline truly resonated with her during a holiday to Europe with her family recently. While driving from Vienna to Munich, the highway which they had initially planned on taking was blocked off, but it was the only route to their destination. “There were no signs or any warning prior to the blockade, it was just one big ‘X’ on the signboard and we simply had to turn around. It was in the dead of winter, and it got dark at 4pm. So there we were, panicking on a German autobahn [highway] where there are no speed limits [on some stretches]. No GPS, no phone coverage, no street lamps, and the signs were all in German,” she recalls, adding: “We tried finding another route but ended up back where we were. We were just going, ‘Oh my god, what do we do now?’ But [I knew] we had to stay calm, and so we diverted onto a side-road, where we tried to figure out what to do, maybe check-in to a motel or something or ask the locals.”
However, as snow and darkness fell, they were still lost. Luckily, a group of locals drove by and she sought help from them, praying that they could speak fluent English – which they did. Turns out, she would have to drive through several rural village roads in order to join another highway, which would then take them to Munich – something no GPS would have told them. Luckily, they finally found their way to Munich after more than three hours of driving, though it should have taken just one hour.
“I had really thought we were [done for],” she says, laughing. “There were four people in a car, in the middle of nowhere, and we were nearly going to explode. I was thinking, ‘This is the beginning of a B-grade horror movie!’” “The tagline, ‘Don’t crack under pressure’, is something we come across all the time. But we never truly realise how important it is until these situations happen, and it becomes something tangible and helps us to be a stronger person in the face of adversity,” she adds.
Hard Lessons
Still, it was not so easy at first to stay cool and collected in the face of adversity, Chew says. In the early days of her career, when she was just starting to make a name for herself, she ran herself ragged with the projects she had to take on. She says: “I took every job out there. Every single thing I could do or that was thrown at me, I would take it. I was sleeping maybe three, four hours at most every day, because it was so hectic, and I was in a terrible mood all the time [because I couldn’t sleep].”
Looking back, Chew says the punishing schedule she kept left her mentally and physically exhausted. “I’ve been quite candid ... before in some interviews about how I’ve definitely had anxiety in terms of how much pressure I was putting on myself. I don’t blame anyone, I decided to take them on myself.” But it got to a point where she was quite literally breaking down. “Every time before I would go on stage, do a gig or host a show, I would be freaking out in the confines of my own car; I would be screaming,” she says.
When Chew looks back at those times, she does not recognise the person she was. “At the peak of my anxiety, I could not sleep for a full week.” The wake-up call was sky-rocketing blood pressure and a warning from the doctor she consulted, that if she continued her crazy schedule, she would develop heart problems in her 20’s. “He said, “I’m prescribing you sleep. That’s it. Sleep,” she recalls. With some help from the doctor and support from her friends and family, she managed to centre herself and find a balance.
“I think mentally, you need to check in with yourself, and introspection is important. You can self-reflect and think, ‘Is this good for me?’ I was trying to do everything and not really focusing on what I was good at.” Chew has since been more selective with her projects, taking on only the things she loves. “I’ve learned that being selective does not mean sacrificing the things [you turn down]. It means you’re choosing to do things which are important to you.”
Today, she makes time for herself, no matter how hectic her schedule is. She reads for at least 30 minutes a day, goes to the gym, and makes time for her family and friends. “I always wish I have had more hours in a day, but I have some ‘cheats’ which help me to save time – like getting a portable blender so I can have my breakfast on the go.” Her priority this year is to spend more time with her parents, as she is their only child and she would like to travel more with them in their golden years.
Next, Chew is about to debut her first acting gig in a Mandarin-language comedy set in Singapore. Jokingly, she describes her grasp of Mandarin as “super bad”. But if there is anything the experience of being in the movie has taught her, it is that she could do anything if she puts her mind to it. “Anything is possible. I never thought I would act in a movie in Mandarin, because the one time I hosted an event in Mandarin, I was literally cold-sweating before the show.” The release date for the movie has not been announced and she cannot divulge too much. But she says she is basically the “comic relief” in the movie, and she will get the chance to show off her comedy chops. She is also going to continue growing her restaurant business, and from there, who knows? The world, for now, is up for grabs, and Chew shows no sign of stopping.
