PUBLISHED ONAugust 24, 2023 11:55 AMByYeo Shu HuiFor content creators, behind every post and project is blood, sweat and tears — maybe not literally — but hours of effort and hard work are spent ensuring that every single detail works out.
But that's not the only thing that they have to wrestle with as influencer Naomi Neo opened up about her struggles as a content creator.
In a YouTube video uploaded on Aug 19, she appeared on the web series Get Fed, in which she spoke to YouTuber Ryan Tan and producer Shermaine on the topic.
The 27-year-old took the opportunity to chat with the duo while tucking in to her favourite local comfort food that included chicken rice, steamed fish and herbal chicken soup.
Naomi described her choice of chicken rice - from 139 Hainan Chicken Rice located at Yuhua Village Market and Food Centre in Jurong East - as "simple" and "safe" delicacy. In addition, the stall is also located just opposite her parents-in-laws shop, which makes her frequent the stall more often when she helps out with her in-law's business.
She added: "I love gizzard and liver, so I naturally like places that sell it because not all chicken rice stalls sell them."
They also tried herbal chicken soup from Zai Shun Curry Fish Head located in Bendemeer, which they didn't have much expectations of at first, but Naomi was pleasantly surprised after tasting it.
"I actually liked it, maybe it is because it is very close to home and my mum used to make herbal chicken all the time for me," she said.
The soup was also her favourite among all the dishes that they have tried.
"When I think about my favourite thing, I will think about something that I can eat everyday," she shared.
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Besides sharing a meal with the two hosts, Naomi also got into how she had been with Ryan remarking that she seems to be "doing very well".
She humbly shared: "I feel that it is a misinterpretation. Because I have just been showing a lot of the good sides of myself. But the truth is, I am just too busy to show the behind-the-scenes. It is always the final product of something.
"So I feel like there is always this idea in people's minds that it's like 'oh, life is great'. I think people don't see the struggles behind it."
Ryan also asked Naomi to share one misconception that people have about her.
She said: "I feel that people have this misconception that I am a show-off or I like to flex, but I don't know whether it is a misconception because I chose for myself to be portrayed that way online?"
Naomi also said that while she wants to "stay true" to herself, she also knows what her audiences want to watch.
"This is my rice bowl, it's not something that I am just playing around with and I can be truly authentic to myself," she explained.
Naomi also shared that her intention was never to flaunt her luxurious lifestyle: "I was hoping to motivate people, but of course people started to have their own perception [of me] from there."
Ryan empathised with her view and added: "As a content creator, we have an entertaining and amplified version of ourselves out there. If we were to really present what we are like behind closed doors, it's going to be very boring. We just 'nua'."
'Nua' is a Singlish term referring to 'lazing around'.
Laughing, Naomi added: "We are just normal people!"
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