In 2015, Cheryl Wee and her mother, hairdresser and entrepreneur Jean Yip, sat down for a short mother-and-daughter beauty Q&A. Each answered questions about the other. Jean founded the Jean Yip Group, and Cheryl is her eldest daughter and was then the brand’s ambassador.
The exchange was light, but it showed two different attitudes to beauty. Jean is a perfectionist about grooming. Cheryl keeps things simple, partly out of necessity.
A mother who rarely disapproves
Asked whether she had ever disapproved of her daughter’s beauty choices, Jean said no. She felt Cheryl knew what flattered her.
The salon founder also admitted to learning from her daughter. Jean said Cheryl had made her more disciplined. At the time she was using a face mask every day, or at least every other day, and doing a hair mask treatment weekly. She also said Cheryl had persuaded her not to eat after 7pm.
The one thing a mother could not stand
Jean’s complaint was about food. She felt Cheryl ate too healthily and did not eat enough. It was a mother’s worry rather than a beauty critique.
Eat well rather than pop vitamins
Cheryl said the best beauty advice her mother had given her was to nourish the body with fresh, nutritious food rather than rely on vitamin pills. In her view, a body that is eaten well for responds well.
She could not name anything strange her mother had told her. Everything Jean said made sense to her.
Polished mother, low-maintenance daughter
Cheryl did not claim to share her mother’s approach entirely. She described herself as more low-maintenance, while Jean was always immaculately groomed. She stressed that this was not for lack of effort. She has eczema and is allergic to much of the skincare and makeup on the market, and even to certain fabrics. She therefore kept to a simple skincare routine and avoided wearing makeup whenever she could, to keep flare-ups away.
For a family whose name is built on hair, beauty and slimming services, it was a candid admission. The Jean Yip Group was founded in 1982 with a single outlet in Katong Plaza. By 2013 it had grown to more than 60 outlets, according to a press release from that year. That year Cheryl collected the group’s Superbrands award on its behalf.
Where Cheryl is now
Cheryl’s career has moved well beyond the ambassador role. By 2016 she was working as an actress and singer, and she was running her first business, Cheryl W, a wellness and weight management centre. In July 2017 she married her longtime partner, architect Roy Fong, in a church ceremony followed by a banquet at the Ritz-Carlton. Her aunt, the singer Dawn Yip, performed at the celebrations.
Cheryl announced the birth of her second child on social media on 9 September 2019.
Her work has since centred on the business she founded. The Singapore Women’s Weekly describes Cheryl W as a weight management firm that she started after overcoming body dysmorphia. A video interview from late 2025 followed her as she discussed running a weight-loss business after an eating disorder. It also covered growing up as “Jean Yip’s daughter” in one of Singapore’s best-known beauty families.
That history gives her 2015 remarks about food and discipline a fuller context. She was already thinking hard about what a healthy approach to eating and beauty should look like.