Singapore - Slut , whore, porn star.

These were some of the words that netizens used to malign a 23-year-old mother of two after she posted nude photos of herself on Facebook.

People can be so judgmental.

Mary (not her real name) might have been naive to have posted such provocative pictures and not expect lewd comments and condemnation, but it's all part of her work.

She is a lingerie model, a profession she went into with her eyes open because, she said, she has limited options as an N-level certificate holder.

Modelling is the highest-paying job she can get, said Mary, who previously worked as an auxiliary police officer and an administrative associate, but found that they didn't pay enough.

And posting the pictures, in which she's sometimes naked but without exposing any naughty bits, had the desired effect - they managed to drum up more business for her.

"I actually saw more job offers from photographers after the pictures went out," she said.

She is used to lewd comments from strangers as she frequently posts risqué photos of herself onto her Facebook page.

But her latest batch of pictures was becoming too hot to handle, so she took them down two hours after posting them.

By then, they had 50 shares and more than 500 "likes".

Also by then, they had taken on another life online, making the rounds on the Internet after netizens shared them on the popular HardwareZone forums.

Among other comments, many of which are too crude to mention here, she was called a slut who did not consider her children's future.

Mary told The New Paper on Wednesday evening that she removed the pictures because they had attracted too much attention.

"Usually, I would only get around 100 'likes' for my pictures. But these became too hot and I was concerned."

As she had wanted to generate publicity for her work, she had made no attempt to make the nude photos private.

She removed them only after she felt the situation was getting out of hand.

But Mary, who is in the midst of a divorce, felt her critics have no right to accuse her of being a bad mother until they have walked in her shoes.

"Do they think that I enjoy exposing my body to strangers? They don't understand that I have to do this to earn money. I'm in a bad financial state right now," she said.

Her divorce proceedings have been a drain on her financially and she is also taking law classes to become a paralegal in a bid to upgrade herself.

The classes are not cheap, she said, declining to reveal which school she is in.

And she doesn't even earn that much from modelling - $2,000 at most in a month, and that doesn't happen often.

She usually charges $100 to $150 per session.

"I know I can't do this (modelling) forever. At some point, I have to stop," she said.

Mary's busy schedule, balancing photo shoots and classes, means that she needs a babysitter to care for her nine-month-old daughter on weekdays. She sees her daughter only on weekends.