It’s not a stretch to say Annette Lee, 31, is one of the most popular content creators in Singapore.

Known for her parody videos and humourous portrayal of characters like pretentious influencer Chantelle, she has amassed over 213K followers on TiktTok and has 51K subscribers on her YouTube channel.

In 2022, Annette, who is also a filmmaker, actress and musician, was named one of TikTok's most viral creators in Singapore and made Forbes’ 30 under 30 list.

In a recent episode of #JustSwipelah, Annette shared with host Xixi Lim about her journey to becoming a content creator.

The digital filmmaking grad stumbled into content creation in 2015 after one of her viral blog posts caught the attention of SGAG and was offered a job there.

In mid 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Annette, then 28, left SGAG to be an independent content creator as she wanted “more creative freedom to pursue [her] own stuff”.

Despite having an established portfolio, she had to “start from scratch”. She described the period as “worrying” and “anxiety-filled” ‘cos there “might be months where you earn nothing”.

Xixi asked Annette the question that everyone wants to know: How much does she make now.

“It’s different every month. I definitely don't earn more than you. You’re busier than I am," said Annette.

“You know why I'm busy? It’s ‘cos I am cheap!” quipped Xixi.

Though Annette had just started out as a freelancer, she was very fortunate to always have jobs 

Jokes aside, Annette, who is married to hedge fund manager Raphael Foo, revealed – reluctantly – that excluding the two months of maternity leave after giving birth to her son during which she “didn’t earn anything”, the least she made was “roughly $3K to $5K” a month.

“It was when I first quit my job and started out as a freelancer. On average, I managed to match [her previous] salary. There were no months where there was no income ‘cos I would take on at least one job, even if it didn’t pay a lot,” she explained.

“But when I first started working at a production house, my pay, after deducting CPF, was only $1K plus.”

Well, no matter. When 8days.sg got on a call with Annette, she shared that she’s in a good place now and “doing well”.

And by well, she means “up to a five-figure income in some months” which derives from mostly from “hosting and performances as well as conceptualising sponsored content”.

Her other sources of income include royalties and ad revenue from YouTube, Facebook and music streaming platforms.

While it may seem a lot, the bulk of it is reinvested back into her business and projects like the Ann & Ben Show, the music video series she did with Benjamin Kheng that produced the viral ‘The Caifan Song', and her new series Adventure Of The Day with YouTuber and competitive eater Zermatt Neo.

Her advice to those who want to try content creation is simply to keep creating work: “You only get better by doing... I went through a lot of sorting things out, trying and failing, and experimenting. Every day I am experimenting, it’s always constant process of how to improve.”

Did she consider joining talent competitions?

Though she enjoys performing, Annette told #JustSwipelah that it never crossed her mind to join talent competitions like Singapore Idol or Star Search as she has stage fright.

“Even now before I go on stage, I would be very nervous, so I feel I am more suited for online content. If you make a mistake, you can retake, but not on stage,” she said.

And beauty pageants are out of the question ‘cos she's “not pretty enough”.

“I can name a lot of people who are prettier than I am, like Rebecca Lim, Felicia Chin, and you. If I were to join a beauty pageant, I know I won’t go far,” she told Xixi.

Photos: Annette Lee/Instagram, #JustSwipeLah