The weight-loss business is a multibillion dollar industry. Every year, women subject themselves to fad diets, funny pills, and fat-burning electric belts in pursuit of an ever-changing notion of an “ideal” body size. At the end of the week, we pray to our weighing scales, hoping for that little needle to move just a smidge lower than what it showed last week. And when it doesn’t, we slink away and gorge on ice-cream to cheer ourselves up.

 “Back then, the weighing scale was my television – I was glued to it. I thought I had a good idea of what my ideal weight was supposed to be, so I often went on crash diets,” explains Sherlyn Tan, founder of Twenty3. Uncomfortable in her own skin and often picked on for her size in school, she suffered from low self-esteem, equating her weight with what she perceived as how people judged her. Although it is a common fear among women, Sherlyn went a step farther than most, resorting to just eating a single egg and a bowl of Campbell’s soup every meal, to the point of collapse – her father carried her in his arms to the nearest clinic when she fainted one day.

“That was my life for years. My weight would balloon up and crash down frequently, often with a 10kg swing each time. I thought it was normal,” says Sherlyn. That was until she was hospitalized with dengue in February 2015. Vomiting daily, her weight quickly fell away. There was also the mental burden of leaving her rapidly-growing business on its own, as well as the emotional depths when she came under attack from cyberbullies who called her a fraud and a slut, among other things. “That was absolutely the lowest point in my life, and I just wanted to end it all.”

She was discharged a week later, at her lightest weight in all her life, but a physical and emotional wreck. “I hated how weak and lowly I felt, so defenceless and allowing myself to be trampled by a mosquito and a bunch of anonymous bullies. I wanted to change all that, but didn’t know how,” says Sherlyn.

A month after, fully recovered, she tagged along to her first gym session with her boyfriend. It was an eye-opener, and while digging deeper into the world of fitness, she discovered Instagram fitness sensation, Kayla Itsines, and her world-famous Bikini Body Guide (BBG). “I’m a very structured and regimented person, so having a guide really helped me. The community aspect of it was also very encouraging, and they all shared their progress pics, which inspired me further,” she explains. “I wanted to look like those girls – fit, lean and happy.”

Sherlyn started her Instagram account, @sherlyn_fitness, to keep up with the BBG community and to keep herself on track. Her single-mindedness pushed her to keep improving each day, with the memory of her lowest point driving her on. She knew her mind would make excuses each morning, so she started sleeping in her workout clothes, sometimes even with her ponytail, so that she could jump out of bed and straight to the gym!

Her Instagram account grew quickly, attracting support from like-minded people from around the world who love to work out. “It’s a two-way thing – I share my workout routines and my clean-eating meals to help educate and advocate a healthy lifestyle, and the encouragement from my followers inspires me to go further!” she says.

Fellow Malaysian devotees of the BBG phenomenon began congregating on her Instagram. This gave her a lightbulb moment to hold the very first BBG community meet-up session in Malaysia. “I'm an ultra-introvert, and especially just recovering from the lowest point in my life, it was extremely difficult to get myself to do anything like this. However, I knew I had to overcome it just like my previous challenges – the small victories do count!”

The first BBG meetup was held in October 2015 at KLCC Park, spread out over 2 weekends to accommodate over 100 girls! Boyfriends, sisters and even mothers of the BBG girls were present too to show their support. 

 She has organized BBG meetups each month when able, paying from her own pocket to rent gyms and once, even to host a clean eating meetup and discussion. The response has been overwhelming from women all over Malaysia, and once, even a Singaporean virtually took part in the workout!

OUR FIRST EVER MALAYSIA PINK @kayla_itsines BBG MEET UP VIDEO TEASER! I can't wait for this Saturday part 2 meet up and combine both group photos & videos already! Im so happy seeing these video! I'll be posting this video on our FACEBOOK PAGE : BBGMY so you may grab it from there! Special thanks to @titus_tjt for helping us with this! ??????#bbggirls #bbgmy #bbgmalaysia #bbgmeetup #bbg #fitness #healthy @kayla_itsines @bbg_my @bbgmeetup #bbgvideochallenge #sweatwithkayla

A video posted by Sherlyn Tan (@sherlyn_fitness) on Oct 18, 2015 at 6:56am PDT

Within these few months of healthy living, Sherlyn realized the importance of the adage, ‘mind over matter.’ “It's our mind that limits us. My advice to those looking to start fitness is the same as what I tell every budding entrepreneur – don’t overthink it. You don’t have to be great to start, you just have to start to be great. Go ahead and test your limits, then break them.”

Inspired by her own fitness journey, she created a new sportswear line called MOVE by Twenty3. “New, cute workout outfits – especially sports bras – always pump me up! I wanted to create a line that was equal parts functional and fashionable. Most big sportswear companies neglect the latter,” she explains.

"As for the name MOVE, I hope more people realize that fitness isn’t a destination. It’s not a bikini body, it’s not a flat tummy, it’s not a number on your weighing scale – once you’ve achieved those goals, it becomes easy to lose the initial motivation. Fitness is about motion, the movement, and the journey. I started my journey because I wanted to be as slim as what society demanded, but now I just want to be better and stronger than I was yesterday. The last time I stepped on my weighing scale, I was 5 kgs heavier than before I fell sick due to my growing muscles. But when I look in the mirror and at the things I am able to do with my body now, I realize that I really don’t care about my weight anymore. I just want to keep moving and breaking my limits!”

Note: MOVE by Twenty3 is launching in Atria Shopping Gallery on the 19th of March 2016!

The next BBG meetup is happening on April 2, 2016 at Bangkung Park, Bangsar. If you’d like to be a part of a warm, friendly, and supportive community of MOVERS, drop Sherlyn a DM @sherlyn_fitness. Beginners are absolutely welcome!

3 reasons why Eleanor Roosevelt is the original #GirlBoss #WonderWomanWednesday

International Women’s Day 2016 may have passed, but that doesn’t mean we’ll stop celebrating and promoting the cause of women everywhere! Tea by Twenty3, our basic line of quirky graphic tees that aim to inspire self-reflection, is all about empowering women to unabashedly celebrate themselves and indulge in the self-love that they deserve.

So what's with the name "Tea"?

Tea isn't just a play on "t-shirt", or a random word we picked out to christen our new line of basics. Our graphic designers wanted their work to have a name that would adequately convey the sense of strength, confidence, and femininity that they've imbued into their designs.

So we decided it was only appropriate for this collection to pay homage to a woman who we think is an absolute boss: Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor, the First Lady of the United States of America from 1933 to 1945 and a firm advocate for causes she believed in, has said lots of cool things, including, apparently, this gem:

"A woman is like a tea bag --- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water."

We can't describe Eleanor as anything less than a force of nature.

1. She broke new ground in issues like equal rights for women. During the war, she was one of the first to push for factory jobs to be given to women, in an era where women were expected to stay home and act demure.

“If I were of a debutante age I would go into a factory–any factory where I could learn a skill and be useful.”

Following the war, she was heavily involved in the drafting of the New Deal, in which she advocated for women higher wages and more white-collar jobs. She chaired the first Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, and was a prolific and highly influential newspaper columnist advancing the cause of women everywhere.

2. She fought for underrepresented racial minorities. She was one of the only voices in the White House to argue for equal benefits for all races under the New Deal, and refusing to acquiesce to demands for racial segregation (she once placed a chair in the center aisle of a public meeting that adopted racially-segregated seating). She broke precedent by inviting hundreds of African-American guests to the White House, when parts of the country were still segregated and racial tensions were high.

3. She played an instrumental role in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Even after the death of her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, her stature in the global civil rights movement was such that she was elected the first chairperson of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Following her death, the UN posthumously awarded her one of its first Human Rights Prizesin 1968 in recognition of her work.

In an era when women had far less opportunity to be seen and heard than they do today, Eleanor resolutely pushed through glass ceilings and tried to help others do the same. We're proud to honour Eleanor's inspirational life in Tea by Twenty3. To Eleanor, and other women like her, this one's for you.

With International Women's Day coming up next week, Tea by Twenty3 wants to celebrate you --- and wants YOU to celebrate you. But we know it's not easy for anyone. Take the women on our #WonderWomenWednesday series --- they're unquestionably champions, but they've struggled with self-doubt, low self-esteem, and lots of other pesky negative self-things.

So how do you make yourself feel like the superwoman that you are? We have some ideas.

1. Be okay with your off-days. There are no two ways about it: there will be bad days, whether they happen in your job, your workouts, your love life, or even your ability to be a nice person. They're so much a part of everyone's life that we think someone should add "off-days" to that saying about nothing being certain except death and taxes.

 So we hope you'll be kind to yourself on your off-days. Remind yourself that if you didn't have any of them you'd be an alien, and that even an off-day can be progress. A day in your weightlifting routine where you can't seem to get your form right, for example, is still better than not working out at all.

2. Never forget --- you don't truly know what goes through anyone's head but your own. People's lives often look amazing on social media, in the family Christmas card, or when you run into them hanging out with their friends at a trendy coffeehouse. But there's a high chance that there's a lot you aren't seeing. No one's thoughts are eternally sparkles and gold dust --- we all have dark places in our minds. Because most of us (understandably) don't wave our worst thoughts on a banner for the entire world to see, it's easy to feel alone, weird, or like a loser when you're down. Remember that someone else probably feels the same way.

 3. Surround yourself with people who recognize that you're a human being. If you have people in your life who appreciate that you're a complex, flawed person, and who love and encourage you anyway, hold them tight and don't let go. It's totally fine for your friends and family not to agree with everything about you, as long as they give you constructive, respectful criticism and allow you to make self-improvement choices on your own terms. Find people who gently and lovingly push you to be better --- and who lift you up on those days when you're struggling to be even mildly okay with a single thing about yourself.

4. Keep a gratitude journal -- with a twist. Gratitude journals have become a tremendously popular practice for helping people through challenging situations (remember the 100 Days of Gratitude social media challenge?). We want you to do something a bit different: a gratitude journal of personal victories. Write about how you made a delicious triple-layer passionfruit cake with your sister --- or about how you tried to make a delicious triple-layer passionfruit cake with your sister, completely messed it up, but had a fun afternoon with your sister anyway. Write about how you loved your outfit, mastered the cat eye, wore a t-shirt that made you laugh. The small victories count.

5. Look in the mirror when you start your day. Smile at yourself and think about the cool things the person looking back at you is going to do today. Say out loud (and share with us, if you like!) how you're working on loving yourself. If you don't know where to start, here are some suggestions:

I'm working on my ____ 
I love my ____
I'm pumped about my ____
I'm thinking about my ____
I'm improving my ____
I'm working out my ____

Repeat steps 1-5 every day. Have fun feeling like an empress!

Floor-length skirts and sleeves that graze your wrists are often reminiscent of times past. But instead of harking back to bygone eras, IRA by Twenty3 uses modest garments to hark forward to an age of women harnessing their own strength.

 To inform their creations, our designers have taken subtle and deceptively simple cues from the modern world they inhabit. The glorious tilt of a woman's chin when she walks tall, the supple arch of a woman's back, the quiet dignity of women of faith, have all played into their vision for structure mixed with softness. The IRA by Twenty3 collection is as much social commentary as it is fast fashion. Whether in the form of a precise hand-drawn print or a luxuriant swish of green in an A-line skirt, there's something riveting about elevating modest fashion to its rightful place as part homage to the goddess in every woman. Here, tradition, grace, and strength collide, coalesce, and blossom on modern women making their way through the world --- a world awakening to a new kind of heritage.

Tea by Twenty3 is the work of Twenty3's creative design team - a group of local graphic designers who want to put their solid sense of fit, form, and function into the world via comfortable, stylish everyday wear.

Twenty3 has always sought to remind women that it's okay to chase your boldest dreams. But we know that chasing your dreams can be really, really hard. In an era where beautiful, sparkling, successful examples of others who are everything we want to be are just a few clicks away, falling prey to our own fears about not being good enough, smart enough, rich enough, or even "lucky" enough can hold us back.

With Tea by Twenty3: You are Enough collection, we want to ask our girls to take a good look in the mirror.

Tea by Twenty3 #LiveLoveLift

We spend so much time looking at other people's lives. With Facebook, People magazine, the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, high school reunions, it's easy to see what (amazing, impressive, better-than-you thing) everyone else is up to.

Tea by Twenty3 #Boom

But Tea by Twenty3: You are Enough, wants to celebrate you --- and wants YOU to celebrate you. We'd love to see our girls focusing on their own goals, hobbies, and ideals, no matter what they are. It's hard, but we honestly think anyone who even tries to ignore all the noise of everyone else is an absolute superhero!

Tea by Twenty3 #EatClean

So here's our challenge: look at yourself, unashamedly. In the mirror and outside of it. Stop scrolling through picture-perfect Instagram feeds and wishing you were in them. Get to know your own hopes and dreams, strengths and imperfections. Like what you like, do what you do, and own the hell out of all of it.