MS RIS LOW, 19
Former beauty queen

THEN: She was widely ridiculed for her poor diction during an interview in July with RazorTV, a video news site owned by Singapore Press Holdings. She coined the catchword 'boomz' in the interview, which she used to describe making a sartorial impact.

She was crowned Miss Singapore that same month, but gave up her title after it was reported that she had been convicted of credit card fraud in May for offences committed while she was working as a clinic assistant last year. The teenager, who suffers from bipolar disorder, had been sentenced to 24 months of supervised probation.

NOW: The ex-beauty queen is still in the news. She was recently ranked as one of the 25 most influential people or groups in Asia this year, by a division of the United States news network CNN. Earlier this month, she revealed that she was planning to organise her own beauty pageant and has even found a new job as a clinic assistant.

She now wants to reinvent herself - as a social worker and a tourism ambassador.

She told The Sunday Times last week that she had met the Singapore Tourism Board to discuss promoting Singapore 'in terms of fashion sense'.

She has also signed up for a nine-month part-time diploma in certified counselling psychology at the Academy of Certified Counsellors. 'One of my ambitions is to help people and do voluntary work.'

Ms Low, who has had a boyfriend for the last few months, plans to get married in two years. She says her life has changed for the better despite the bad press and her army of critics. 'More people recognise me now. As for my critics, they aren't the ones having the last laugh, because they made me popular.'

Terrence Voon

This article was first published in The Sunday Times.