She’s laughing all the way to the bank.
Growing up in a small town, Selina Amy always felt like an outsider, never really fitting in with her peers, who looked nothing like her.
“I’m half-Vietnamese and half-Dutch, and my dark features stood out in a community where most people were blonde and blue-eyed,” the model told Jam Press.
“I remember wishing I looked like everyone else because other kids would constantly mock the shape of my eyes or call me names. I dreaded going to school and just wanted to hide, and I didn’t feel beautiful.”
It wasn’t until she was older and building her social media following that she learned that being unique is a beautiful thing.
“As I got older and started sharing my life online, I realized that being different was a good thing,” the 23-year-old explained.
“I stopped trying to be less Asian, I stopped trying to be smaller,” she revealed. “That changed how I carried myself, how I worked, how I built my platforms.
“When I started learning more about my culture, my mother’s hometown, the traditions, the food, something shifted in me. I learned to respect the other half of myself,” she said, adding that she spent time living in Vietnam, an experience she described as a “healing” one.
The model’s background in psychology and special education also helped her better understand how those early days of bullying helped shape who she is today.
“I studied psychology because I wanted to understand why people hurt others – and why it hurts so much when you’re young. Now I see how important it is to build confidence from within. Motivation comes and goes, but self-worth is something you build,” the Netherlands resident said.
Nowadays, Amy is proving her haters wrong by creating content for her 122,000 Instagram followers, which helps her bring in six-figure paychecks.
“I honestly hope my bullies are doing well, I just hope they raise their children differently,” she said. “No one should grow up feeling ashamed of where they come from. For a long time, I thought my difference was something I had to hide. Now it’s the heart of everything I’m building.”
