The Stories Behind: The troubled teen who spent her youth running from the law but now runs a chain of beauty salons

SINGAPORE — From smoking her first cigarette when she was nine years old and having multiple run-ins with the law, Ms Ivy Zerbel Lim's entrepreneurial ways are a far cry from her rebellious teenage behaviour.  

It was hard to imagine that this soft-spoken 29-year-old, dressed in a formal black jacket, used to get into fistfights and ran away from a girls' home.  

The chief executive officer of beauty salon chain Fifty;freed said during an interview with TODAY: "When I started in the beauty industry, I wanted to make a place for girls to come in, feel good — somewhere that is their safe haven and sanctuary to come and relax.”

Each detail in the lounge of her five beauty bars is handpicked by Ms Lim to exude feelings of comfort and safety because she remembers a time when she needed a welcoming space.

Her salons — which offer nail, eyebrow and facial services — also ensure there is also no hard selling that makes people feel uncomfortable or pressured.

She remembered what it was like as a teenager to feel uncomfortable because she said that she used to get bullied often. She turned to drugs and cigarettes to cope, dropping out of school at 17. 

On video-sharing channel TikTok, she now talks about her struggles growing up as a way reach out to other young women who might be facing adversity. 

Her TikTok video on her journey from troubled teenager to business owner has generated more than 380,000 views and received 17,000 likes since it was posted in May.

Opening up about her chequered past on social media was not an easy decision for her as she feared getting bullied again.  

However, thinking of how her younger self struggled with loneliness and knowing that there were other girls out that may be where she was half a lifetime ago, she decided to put herself out there. 

She recalled how she was “trembling” when she first posted her first video — a decision she mulled over for a year.

“I feel that social media now is a very fake facade — everybody’s doing commercials. But I really want to focus on real-world problems that (entrepreneurs) don’t address, like bullying, mental health,” she said. 

Her viral video, which attracted positive comments, motivated her to share more about her journey to success. 

“I think I came out even stronger (from my teenage days), so nothing can faze me now,” Ms Lim said, describing her growing-up years as the most “serious” struggles she would likely ever face. 

“I’m not proud of my past, but I’m also not ashamed of it, because it’s a learning curve for me.”

LABELLED THE 'BAD KID'

With buck teeth and a dark birth mark spanning the right side of her face from her eyebrow to her nose, Ms Lim was picked on by other children for her looks.

She still remembers the vulgarities and names thrown at her and being shunned by classmates from the time she was in kindergarten.  

At home, she also felt that she could not freely share her troubles because her parents dished out only “tough love" and it was rare for anyone to share their feelings at home. 

As both her parents were working, she recalled lacking supervision and her parents being "very strict" by preventing her from going out, which prompted her to be more rebellious.

“When I was in primary school, I didn’t have a lot of friends. I didn’t socialise and was always alone, and at home, I didn't have emotional support,” Ms Lim said. 

She started smoking at nine and was taking drugs as an “escape from reality" by 13.

While her peers were settling into secondary school, Ms Lim was dealing with the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

At 13, she was caught for sniffing glue, taking ketamine and ecstasy pills and had to report to CNB for urine testing twice a week.

Deemed out of control by her parents, she was placed in a girls' home at 14 for about six months before she ran away from there. 

To make ends meet, she sold contact lenses online before being caught by the authorities who then placed her back in a girls' home for two months. After that, she went home and started school again. 

“When I went back to school, teachers will say (to other students), 'Don’t hang out with her'. (I was) always labelled as the bad kid and bad influence. They’ll say, ‘She’s not a good person’,” Ms Lim said. 

Staying in a girls’ home was “not as scary” as people may think, but Ms Lim felt isolated from the rest of the world.

For her, being confined with other teenagers with similar struggles also proved to be at odds with the rehabilitative process, since she made friends with other teenagers who dabbled in prohibitive substances and reconnected with them outside the home facility.   

Three years later when she was 17, she went to prison for drug-related offences after being caught during a raid by the authorities. She served time in a drug rehabilitation centre in Changi Women Prison for six months and was later placed under probation. 

While in prison, she spent some time reflecting on her future plans and wrote down how her dream was to open a nail salon. She even charted her path, which included taking a course and getting a certificate. 

However, those dreams quickly faded when she was released at 21.  

“When we come out (from rehabilitation), I can tell you 100 per cent that everybody forgets (what they want to do to change), until something in life changes them,” Ms Lim said.

Describing this as her "playful" period, she added that it was not long before she returned to her old ways after her release. 

Her turning point was having her first child that same year and divorcing her first husband at 22, when her daughter was six months old.

Realising that she had to support her daughter alone, she worked four jobs — in e-commerce, at a pub, in a car wrapping (paint protection) business and as a self-taught manicurist.

Her interest in nail services was evident and she found a friend to start a business with her. While the two parted ways in 2021 due to differences in business ideas, Ms Lim went on to start Fifty;freed.

From a three-person team in a 100-sqf space, Ms Lim's beauty business has grown to five outlets with around 40 employees in the span of three years. She has her sights set on taking her brand overseas one day.

She has even achieved a childhood goal of buying her dream car — a Lamborghini that is customised blue and pink, just the way her younger self imagined it.

When asked to what she attributes her current success, Ms Lim said that her biggest motivation was her fear of “going back to the past”. 

Being a mother of three young children after remarrying at 26 also motivates her to give her children a better starting point in life and consistent emotional support.

Despite her childhood struggles and feeling that she could not open up to her parents, Ms Lim still has a good relationship with her parents, whom she supports financially.  

She attributed this to the programmes that she attended while in prison dedicated to mending family relationships.

Becoming a mother herself also helped her understand what her parents were going through, she said, and she has learnt to be more filial towards them. 

Her mother Jenny Pang said that she was very proud of her daughter and believes that she would go far in life. 

Ms Pang, 55, recalled how her daughter's rehabilitation journey was bittersweet for the family.

"During that time, we had mixed feelings. We were very sad that she was not with us, but we were also happy for her, at least she was in good hands. I did not know what to look forward to, until her release." 

Ms Pang and her husband Bernard Lim, 57, would quickly book any visitation slot at the girls' home and prison when they opened up, which could be as little as once a month.

"It's difficult for us as parents, but I think it's good that she has to face what she has done and all the consequences. We've never given up hope on her," Ms Pang added. 

Ms Lim's parents now take an active role in caring for her three children as she sometimes works late. 

Her father said that seeing his daughter's success today is of “great comfort”.

“Watching her journey, we know it has not been easy for her. Instead of giving up, she faced every challenge and difficulty. Only through such perseverance has she achieved some success today,” Mr Lim added. 

SUPPORTING HER EMPLOYEES' GROWTH

Apart from Fifty;freed, Ms Lim is also the owner of several companies including a beauty academy and a marketing agency. 

She actively encourages her employees, most of whom are young women in their 20s and 30s, to pursue their own dreams.

“It’s not that if you’re a manicurist, you’ll be a manicurist for life. We plan training for them, sign them up for courses,” Ms Lim added. 

One hope is that her workers can learn the standard procedures she has developed, and “take that forward” to their own business should they want to be an entrepreneur. 

“Eventually, maybe I can be their investor. If they want to grow their own brand, they’ll always have me as a backing and I’ll be very proud of them."

Ms Lim observed that her six-year-old daughter likes to follow her around her outlets and is ever eager to help with tasks.

“She told her teacher, ‘My ambition is to be a businesswoman'. Other (children) would like to be a teacher, doctor, but hers is businesswoman,” Ms Lim said with a smile.