Chen Yixin may play popular influencer Sissy in the TV adaptation of beloved Singaporean bestseller The Teenage Textbook (P/S: The book came out in 1988, 12 years before she was born), but the budding actress tells 8days.sg that in real life, she definitely wasn’t at the top of her school’s popularity food chain like her character.

With celeb couple Edmund Chen and Xiang Yun as her parents, you’d think that everyone would be clamouring to be her friend, but it’s precisely her family pedigree that made the 20-year-old a target of unsavoury gossip among her peers.

“I wasn’t ostracised or anything, but people would just make bad comments about me behind my back or assume that I had special privileges ‘cos of my family background,” recalled Yixin, who is now dating her Teenage Textbook co-star Gavin Teo. “I wouldn’t say I was really bullied, but feelings were hurt and I definitely wasn’t popular lah.”

The part about “special privileges” couldn’t be further from the truth.

Yixin explained that she had to go through rounds of auditions for all her roles just like everyone else, including for Teenage Textbook — The Series, and that none of them were ever handed to her “on a silver platter”.

“And what some people might not know is that I get rejected too, and it’s okay!” she added.

Something Yixin might have more in common with Sissy is the fact that they’re both pretty Insta-famous: Yixin has over 55K followers on her account (at the time of writing) and regularly collaborates with brands for sponsored posts.

However, she stops short at calling herself an actual influencer.

“To a certain extent, I guess I can be considered one ‘cos I do share my skincare routine and people do ask me where I get my food and clothes,” she mused. “But compared to the pros, I’m nowhere near them! I’ve seen the amount of effort they put into their work, and it’s on another level.”

There’s another more self-deprecating reason why Yixin doesn’t think she has what it takes to be a Drea Chong or Mongabong: “There was an interview where we were asked who’s most likely to wear pyjamas to school, and I said it’s definitely me. (Laughs)”

“I have no right to be called an influencer ‘cos I’m so lazy! I know friends who look 10 out of 10 at any time of the day, even after going to the gym, and that’s not me.”

When it comes to her work and proving herself, however, Yixin is anything but lazy.

In fact, one might even say that she could’ve taken things a little easier, at least in the past.

“Growing up, I was really affected by what others thought of me and I cared a lot about how I presented myself ‘cos ever since I was young, my parents would be the first topic that would be brought up in conversation,” she shared.

This made her feel like she had the responsibility of making sure she didn’t do anything that would disappoint them or blight their reputations. “I didn’t want people to think that my parents didn’t raise me well.”

In fact, when Yixin was studying Applied Drama and Psychology at Singapore Polytechnic, she admitted that there were times when she “didn’t know if [she] even had the right to be there” as she felt like she had to prove to people that she “deserved to be [her] parents’ child” and had absolutely no room for failure or mistakes.

Fortunately, Yixin has since come to realise that not only is it okay to mess up sometimes, it’s simply a part of life.

She also feels like she’s finally beginning to discover her own identity, which, as she had hoped, is shaping up to be very different from her mum and dad's.

Getting to star in an English language drama certainly helps (since Edmund and Xiang Yun are known for their work on Ch 8), and so has the advancement of technology and an evolving audience.

“Social media has given me more platforms for me to build my own voice, image, and brand,” she said. “And I feel very blessed ‘cos my parents are very respectful and have given [my brother Yixi and I] a lot of space to explore, while also being very encouraging over what we love and do.”

‘Cos of all this, Yixin no longer sees being in her parents’ shadow as a bad thing. In fact, she doesn’t really see it as a ‘shadow’ now.

“I embrace it,” she declared. “They’re my parents and I love them, but I also need to clarify that I don’t wanna make use of anything or take things for granted, or for people to think that we have it easy ‘cos we didn’t.”

So what’s next for this up-and-comer?

Well, for one, after taking what she considers her first proper step into showbiz with Teenage Textbook (she has also appeared in the second-gen star-studded While We Are Young and Taiwanese-Singapore thriller Precious is the Night), Yixin knows “for sure” that she wants to become a full-time actress.

She also has plans to go to university, although that’s had to be pushed back due to her acting projects as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. While she has a preferred school and major in mind, she is also open to exploring options outside of Singapore.

But for now, Yixin will be in Indonesia for the next few months to film an overseas production she can’t tell us much about (she even signed an NDA).

“At first my parents were worried and skeptical [when I told them I want to go into acting full-time], but they saw how much joy it brought me and how excited I would get whenever I talked to them about being on set, so I’m very blessed that they’re very understanding about it now,” she gushed.

Now that's something you can't learn from a textbook.

Teenage Textbook — The Series airs Tuesdays at 9.30pm on meWATCH and Ch 5.

Photos: Mediacorp, Chen Yixin/Instagram, Edmund Chen/Instagram