Coming up on Hatched Asia!
Fresh stories and a brand new look!
Hey! Welcome back to Hatched Asia. I’m so excited to announce the launch of my second season of interviews *confetti* We’ve got a fresh new look and brand new stories – but at its core, the same curiosity and honest exploration about what life and ambition look like outside of a traditional career path.
The conversations I’ve had with these women founders and creatives in this series of interviews have been equal parts honest, revealing and energising. Here’s a teaser of what’s coming:
A former corporate girlie in NYC shares why she left the 9-to-5 to run a small-batch, artisan-made cowboy boot brand in India 👢
Why women need a third space outside of work and home, according to this founder of a women’s network 🫂
A Singapore-based UX designer turns her passion for design into an incredibly thoughtful self-discovery toolkit 💡
I can’t wait to share these stories and more with you!
Celebrating women-led projects and triumphs
Working on this new series of stories got me thinking a lot about why I started this newsletter.
Two years ago, I took the plunge and opted out of a 9-to-5, after feeling unfulfilled professionally. I knew I wanted some agency in the work I did, but struggled to map the steps to get there. I didn’t know many people in Singapore who were “doing their own thing”. Most of my friends and people I knew within my network were pursuing corporate careers, and I felt a little lost and disoriented.
I told everyone this would be my “one-year experiment”, but truth be told, I was at a loss for the steps to take ahead. This chapter of my life was very much carte blanche: the endless possibilities felt exciting but also simultaneously daunting. I didn’t know how long I would freelance for or what types of work I would do. (Thankfully, I eventually found a few projects that would sustain me and keep me busy.) I began obsessively reading articles and researching (read: LinkedIn stalking) people who managed to build independent careers, whether that’s through freelancing, consulting or entrepreneurship.
This exploration of alternative career paths led to the creation of this newsletter, Hatched Asia.
I was frustrated by the lack of available information on how people actually built their companies/projects, from inception to launch, and thought, “Hey, if everyone is gatekeeping this, maybe I’ll figure that myself!” Mainstream news stories and features about women “she-os”, independent creatives or founders often tend to be reductive, gloss over invisible privileges, or follow the same, recycled and tired plot line. They felt far removed from my reality. And so, the idea for Hatched Asia was born.
Through these (hopefully) honest conversations, I hope that you too get inspired to take a chance on that exciting idea you’ve been sitting on.
Writing this newsletter has also been a way for me to process the ebb and flow of this path (albeit self-serving). Two years into full-time freelancing, I’ve experienced the full emotional life cycle of this path, from the novelty-induced adrenaline-charged beginnings to the messy, what-the-f-am-I-doing middle phase. I’ve learnt that these are genuinely universal feelings, and know enough now to understand that none of these emotions are definitive.
I hope to speak to this reality more honestly in this newsletter. I’ve found incredible comfort in hearing the stories of others on similar non-traditional career journeys that speak to the same questions I’m exploring and realised that most of my fears and problems (am I doing enough? am I earning enough? is what I’m doing aligned with the bigger picture of my life and my core values?) are fairly universal.
Seeing my insecurities and introspections mirrored back on a page has been so liberating. It’s freed me from that debilitating cocktail of self-loathing and insecurity, and instead helps me face any challenges or bumps in the road head-on. I hope some of these words do the same for you too, if you’re considering mapping out a different career path of your own.
I can’t wait to share these stories and more with you!
