What's Jeanette Aw's #Throwback Like?

"I’d say it was experimental, in the sense that I was trying to find myself. I’ve always been very protected by my family, and I’m quite a good girl — you know, model student, doing my homework and not playing truant. I guess I was trying to test what it would be like if I was independent. I think I made a lot of fashion mistakes — like wearing really high platform shoes, and not the sleek ones that are in these days, but plain and chunky black ones. I wore a lot of cropped tops, had blue streaks in my hair in university and wore coloured contacts. Everyone was like “Waaah!” I thought I was so bold, but when I look back I’m like, Oh my God. (Laughs)"

"I wasn’t stressed out about PSLE at all, and I didn’t have tuition. These days, I feel stressed listening to mums comparing tuition centres. Back then, it was like, just do it lor. Before my exams, I was still playing and watching TV. I had the handheld Tetris game. I only studied the day before my exams. I didn’t have the sense that the PSLE was so important. We didn’t understand that if you do well, you go to a good school. I did quite okay in the end, but I was upset ’cos my older sister went to Raffles Girls’ School [and I didn’t]. I went to Crescent Girls’ School."

"I do remember dancing to ‘Macarena’. (Laughs) JC was the first time I had such close contact with boys. My very first boyfriend happened in JC 1 ’cos I didn’t know how to say no to him. I wasn’t that into him, but I wasn’t sure how to say that I wasn’t interested. The relationship didn’t last, but he was really nice to me, There were a few weird boys who stalked me but it was all okay."

"I majored in theatre studies and was very interested in acting, but I wanted to do theatre, not TV. But my friend told me about this company [the now-defunct MediaWorks] looking for actors, so I auditioned and got in, and eventually signed a contract in 2000. And that’s how it all started."