Beauty. Brains. Brawn. A lethal combination that turns
these girl bosses into women moguls.

Coinciding with the celebration&nbsp;of everything Malaysian this September, we would like to honour all the powerful women in our country with our special &quot;Women Who Walk Ahead&quot; series.

And first on our spotlight is the one, the only multi-talented&nbsp;actress, model and entrepreneur&nbsp;Neelofa (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/neelofa/?hl=en" target="_blank">@neelofa</a>).

She was already a prima donna in the&nbsp;making before she dipped her toe in the&nbsp;entrepreneurial world. Her star-making&nbsp;turn in Azura landed her&nbsp;first acting&nbsp;nod at the 25th Malaysian Film Festival&nbsp;and opened countless doors for the&nbsp;young starlet.

While her peers chose&nbsp;to coast on the high life of a celebrity,&nbsp;Neelofa took a road less travelled&nbsp;when she founded Naelofar Hijab, as&nbsp;she yearned for something that&rsquo;s more&nbsp;sustainable. &ldquo;Acting is good while it is&nbsp;good, but it&rsquo;s not forever&rdquo;, she said.

From Islamic wear to perfume,&nbsp;stationery and contact lenses &ndash; thelist is so diverse. What do all these&nbsp;businesses have in common?

They are all basically my personal&nbsp;must-haves. I used to have some&nbsp;trouble finding things that I like,&nbsp;especially hijabs.

So I told myself, &ldquo;why&nbsp;don&rsquo;t I come up with something that I&nbsp;love and see if the market likes it too?&rdquo;,&nbsp;and Alhamdulillah, the products have&nbsp;been well-received by the market and&nbsp;now I get to wear things that I love&nbsp;every day.

&nbsp;

What about your role as nonexecutive&nbsp;independent director at&nbsp;AirAsia?

Long story short, Tan Sri Tony&nbsp;(Fernandes) and I met sometime&nbsp;last year and we talked about the&nbsp;millennials&rsquo; spending power when it&nbsp;comes to travelling and its correlation&nbsp;to the digital media, which turned out&nbsp;to be quite a conversation. Not long&nbsp;after that, I was offered the role to&nbsp;strategise and plan the business that&nbsp;resonates with rising trends. And the&nbsp;rest is history!

DSC_2283.jpg

&quot;I do learn from the lessons after each&nbsp;controversy or backlash, so I know&nbsp;not to make the same mistakes in the&nbsp;future.&quot;

&ndash; Neelofa

(Photo: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/neelofa/">@neelofa</a>)

Your journey is not without&nbsp;challenges and given your celebrity&nbsp;status, the scrutiny has been&nbsp;extremely critical even by the&nbsp;business world standards. Do the&nbsp;years being a public figure help you&nbsp;in dealing with controversies and&nbsp;backlashes?

Sometimes it does, sometimes it&nbsp;doesn&rsquo;t. I don&rsquo;t really pay much attention&nbsp;to controversies and backlashes, but&nbsp;I do learn from the lessons after each&nbsp;controversy or backlash, so I know&nbsp;not to make the same mistakes in the&nbsp;future. I will do better next time.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

With all that responsibility on your&nbsp;shoulders, how do you find time for&nbsp;yourself?

My &ldquo;me-time&rdquo; is always at night, with a&nbsp;cup of tea and a good book, sometimes&nbsp;a good show on Netflix! But I would&nbsp;wake up early to do some exercises like&nbsp;pilates and yoga, and then get ready to&nbsp;go about my day.

I also make it a habit&nbsp;to read the newspapers in the morning&nbsp;so I am aware of what&rsquo;s happening in&nbsp;the world. Even when I&rsquo;m at home, I still&nbsp;work.

Screen Shot 2018-09-21 at 12.23.42 PM.png

You seem to have it all already.&nbsp;What else do you wish to achieve?

I am grateful for everything that I&nbsp;have now. If there&rsquo;s an opportunity in&nbsp;the future, I&rsquo;d like to see my business&nbsp;ventures expand into the property&nbsp;sector; and also I would love to start&nbsp;my own family.

Cover Photo Credits:

Photography: Chintoo&nbsp; 
Styling: Jeffrey Yan 
Makeup: Khir Khalid 
Hair: Juno Ko 
Hijab Stylist: Nazerul Anaz 
Styling Assistant: Joyce Fan

Women Who Walk Ahead: Neelofa

Tags

Recommended posts for you

Fashion

Get warm and cosy with UNIQLO’s Fall/Winter 2024 Knitwear

Fashion

UNIQLO’s Sport Utility Wear elevates your every move

Fashion

A gift guide for the Hermès lover

Fashion

Dior Lady Art #4 has landed in The Starhill KL

Fashion

Here’s what to look out for when you shop at The Starhill KL

Dining

What to feast on at The Starhill Gallery at the New Year's weekend

Arts, Culture & Lifestyle

The Starhill KL is the hub of arts and coffee

Fashion

Ethereal Dreamscape: Venture into a visionary utopia alongside model Acacia