@AndaTheSea: THE POSITIVE INFLUENCER THAT OUR GENERATION NEEDS
@AndaTheSea: THE POSITIVE INFLUENCER THAT OUR GENERATION NEEDS
SHILPA SHADES talks to Farkhanda Chaudhry who explains how a real influencer in Singapore should be.
Better known as ‘Anda The Sea’ on Instagram, Farkhanda Chaudhry is a social media influencer and an upcoming entrepreneur. Her main goals are to influence positively and use her platform to normalise social issues that are still occurring in Singapore, which is rarely seen in the content of other influencers.
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Ms Farkhanda, a Ngee Ann Polytechnic alumnus, graduated with a Diploma in Advertising and Public Relations. She took a gap year afterwards instead of applying to a university. During the gap year, she worked in marketing for a developer company which placed her in Johor, Malaysia where she lived alone during the time she worked there. As interesting as it was, Ms Farkhanda felt that it wasn't enough.
“It’s so boring. Like I can do what I do, I’m not learning anything, I’m not getting smarter and I’m too young to be doing a stupid job. It requires no brain and I'm young. I need to use my brain so I left,” she said.
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After leaving the world of marketing, Ms Farkhanda wanted to join a public relations company and be a PR representative where she’d manage celebrities. She then realised that in
order for her to represent a celebrity, she needed to know and understand how to be one. That’s how Anda The Sea started within a year.
Farkhanda Chaudhry, 24, who goes by ‘@AndaTheSea’ on Instagram, has over 24,000 followers on the platform, which would consider her as a mid-tier influencer. After becoming one, Anda realised that she’s unable to apply for jobs in the public relations sector as it was a conflict of interest since she’s working with various brands already. Thus, she continued being an influencer where she mostly reviewed cosmetics.
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Ms Farkhanda then joined an insurance company, AIA, and became a financial advisor. Two years into the job, she started WearBums, her own line of denim jeans.
She has labelled herself as everyone’s ‘online bestie’ on Instagram as she wanted to be the ‘go-to girl’ for her followers to rant to her or share their life stories, problems or just have a conversation.
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Ms Farkhanda would use her platform to ask people to share personal issues to make others understand the need to accept others. An example would be when she asked her followers on Instagram about how many sexual partners they have had.
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“...it was actually to make people realise so what if you have zero? So what if you have one. So what if you have seven or fifteen? At the end of the day number one, you do not have to
tell people these kinds of things like you do not have to be ashamed of how different you are from another person. At the end of the day, you still come out great,” Ms Farhanda explained.
Ms Nur Atiqa, 22, who’s currently a social media intern for WearBums, has been a fan of ‘Anda The Sea’ from 2017 and has been looking up to Ms Farkhanda ever since.
“She [Ms Farkhanda] connects with her fans, her people that look up to her. She listens to them and she’s very sincere in her responses to them as well,” Ms Atiqa mentioned.
Ms Hanim, 24, who’s been Ms Farkhanda’s best friend for almost five years now, has seen her grow and despite her success, Ms Farkhanda remains the same person she knows in all those years of friendship.
“... she is so genuine and that’s how she has been, you know. She’s not just trying to put up a front or anything like that. She’s just... Like that’s just how she is. Like she wouldn’t care to go Orchard in like flip-flops and in like pyjamas,” said Ms Hanim.
Ms Farkhanda wishes for others to use their platforms to normalise current social issues like body positivity and inclusivity as she does through her platform where she openly discusses about them on her Insta stories and livestreams. She does this even through her brand WearBums where she caters to all body types to promote body positivity for all.
“I feel like you got the platform, get in there girl. You know? Apart from that, my goal: number one is to influence. I want my followers to be more like me at the same time I want them to be open to talking about normalising things,” said Ms Farkhanda.
Ms Farkhanda uses WearBums to help all types of consumers by providing various types of jeans to meet customers’ demands.
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“I mean because she [Ms Farkhanda] started WearBums because of inclusivity, because of plus sized girls who don’t get their perfect fit jeans. She is catering to the demand in the market for that,” Ms Atiqa explained.
All in all, Ms Farkhanda hopes to not only influence her followers, but also other social media influencers. She wishes for them to truly use their platform to advocate acceptance and promote the normalisation of social issues like body positivity and speaking up for minority groups in Singapore.
Farkhanda Chaudhry is the founder of WearBums, her own line of denim jeans to promote body inclusivity and positivity.
Photo by MS FARKHANDA CHAUDHRY
Farkhanda Chaudhry, a 24-year-old financial advisor who is also a social media influencer and an upcoming entrepreneur.
Photo by MS FARHKANDA CHAUDHRY
Farkhanda’s content on her platform are mostly makeup reviews of various brands and tutorials.
Photo by MS FARKHANDA CHAUDHRY
