A scroll through influencer Naomi Neo’s Instagram — on which she has over 650,000 followers, by the way — shows a seemingly picture-perfect life full of glamorous #OOTDs, that S$600K Lamborghini, and her two adorable kids.

However, just like anyone else, the 25-year-old has dealt with her fair share of struggles and insecurities, which she opened up to Quan Yifeng about in the latest two episodes of Mediacorp talk show Hear U Out.

As a public figure, Naomi has been on the receiving end of many nasty comments, but the worst criticism she has ever endured came after she unveiled her swanky new — well, actually, she got it second-hand — Lamborghini Huracán on her socials in August last year.

“Everyone was saying that I relied on my family or husband to get this car, and comments like that get on my nerves ‘cos I’ve been making my own money since I was young,” said Naomi. “While my family is pretty well-off, my dad was very strict when it came to money and wouldn’t buy me a lot of things, which is why I wanted to start earning it on my own.”

By the time she was 16, Naomi had stopped asking her parents for money. She revealed, to Yifeng’s astonishment, that the very first cheque she received as a blogger was S$20,000 (and if anyone’s wondering what she makes now, she previously told 8days.sg that she brings in a six-figure income annually).

As it turns out, Naomi’s father wasn’t just strict with money. He, along with her mother, were very strict parents in general, resulting in a strained and distant relationship between them.

One particular incident that caused Naomi and her folks to drift apart involved her first boyfriend, who was her senior in secondary school.

According to Naomi, after they had dated for some time, her then-boyfriend started asking her for sex. “I was very scared and didn’t know what to do,” she admitted. “At that time, I wondered if he might leave me if I didn’t give in to him.”

They eventually did get intimate and Naomi tried to keep it from her parents at first (as most teens would), but they became suspicious when her boyfriend accidentally broke the gate lock while trying to sneak into the house one day.

What ensued was an intense round of questioning, during which they threatened to take Naomi to the hospital to “do a check-up”. It was then when she panicked and came clean with them, but it didn’t end there.

“My father wanted to transfer me to another school, and when the principal asked him why, he had no choice but to tell the truth,” she explained. “The principal then said that it was her duty to inform the police, but my father chose to do it himself.”

It’s likely that the cops got involved as Naomi was still under the legal age to have sex, which is 16, at that time. She mentioned getting to know the boy when she “just entered secondary school” and that this all happened “over 10 years ago”.

Well, you can probably imagine how Mama and Papa Neo reacted when Naomi got pregnant with her first child, three-year-old son Kyzo, at age 21 before being married to her husband, who is only known as Han.

“Uhhh… no,” was all she would say with a laugh when Yifeng asked if her parents could accept her having a shotgun wedding.

“My mum sort of exploded. (Laughs) She found out by accident ‘cos I left the ultrasound picture on a chair and she saw it. She called my dad, who was in Vietnam at that time, and he called me.”

Naomi also locked herself in her room and refused to talk to her mum ‘cos she was afraid of getting scolded.

Fortunately, they eventually came to terms with it. “I think they like my husband and I believe they can see how Han and I have changed, so they approve of our relationship.”

On the other hand, her second pregnancy with daughter Zyla Rey, now 10 months old, was planned. In fact, Han is already eager to expand their brood even more.

“Before I gave birth to our second child, my husband was already talking about having a third one!” she exclaimed. “I said to him, ‘You talk as if it’s so easy, do you think it’s like laying an egg?’ (Laughs)”

Watch Part 1 of Naomi Neo’s interview on Hear U Out here:

Photos: Naomi Neo/Instagram, Mediacorp