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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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