Malaysia celebrated in April 2014 when Malaysia’s Sheena Liam took the title of Asia’s Next Top Model (AsNTM) for the show’s second season, despite the odds. Along the way, she beat two Philippine representatives, Jodilly Pendre and Katarina Rodriguez. Many fans had picked one of the two Filipinas to win, so the result came as a surprise to plenty of viewers, and it sparked a lot of debate online. It was also the start of a career that later took Liam well beyond modelling. Here’s how the Kajang-raised model won the crown, what she took home, how fans reacted, and what she has done since.
About Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 2
The second cycle of the regional reality show is a competition in which women compete for the title and a chance to begin their career in the modeling industry, featuring aspiring models from the entire Asia-Pacific region. This season had more contestants than the first. The number of contestants increased from 14 to 16: two each from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, and one each from China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Malaysia was home base for the cycle. The show was filmed in Malaysia, and it premiered on January 8, 2014 on STAR World. The international destination during the cycle was Hong Kong, the second time the series travelled there after cycle 1. The judging panel was Nadya Hutagalung, Joey Mead King, Mike Rosenthal and Adam Williams. Liam was one of the two representatives from Malaysia, alongside Josephine Tan.
Sheena Liam Asia’s Next Top Model Finale: Kampung Life and a Star-Studded Runway
The final episode aired on a Wednesday night. The top three faced two final challenges. The first was a photo shoot in Kuala Terengganu, where they had to capture kampung life in their photos. The shoot took place at Malaysia’s Tanjong Jara Resort, where the finalists had to give emotional performances in an editorial shoot depicting “kampung life” (village life).
After the photo shoot, they flew back to Kuala Lumpur for the runway challenge, modelling designs by Ghea Panggabean and Albert Andrada. All three women walked like winners at a well-attended final runway event, and UK-based Malaysian fashion designer Jimmy Choo was there. The episode also had entertainment: the all-male Australian hip-hop dance and pop group Justice Crew performed, and Indonesia’s representative Janice Hermijanto, whom most of the girls had clashed with in earlier episodes, came back to host a runway show.
Why the Judges Called Sheena Liam the “Face of Modern Asia”
In the final judging, the women were first judged on their final photo, and Filipina Katarina Rodriguez was sent home first. The judges said she had grown a lot as a model but was more of a beauty model than an editorial one. Host Nadya Hutagalung joked about how far she had come, recalling that the first time she saw Rodriguez pose, “it was terrible.” Photographer and judge Mike Rosenthal praised her for listening to the panel and processing their feedback.
The final decision was based on the last walk and on overall performance across the season. This is where the result became unexpected. Pendre got the better critique of the two, and model coach Adam Williams called her performance “spectacular.” But Liam’s overall look won it for her: the judges called her “current” and the “face of modern Asia.” Sheena was declared the winner of the second season, with Jodilly as runner-up and Katarina in third place. She was 22 when she won.
Sheena Liam Asia’s Next Top Model Prizes
The winner got a large prize package. It included a three-month contract with Storm Model Management in London, a spread and cover in Harper’s Bazaar Singapore/Malaysia, cash from FOX International Broadcast, a Subaru XV car, and a role as a TRESemmé model for its 2014 campaign. The cash prize was SGD 50,000, and the magazine feature ran in the May 2014 issue of Harper’s Bazaar Singapore and Malaysia.
Liam was generous with her winnings. She was set to claim a three-month modelling stint in London with Storm Model Management, plus a S$50,000/RM120,000 cash prize (which she gave her parents) and a brand-new car (also given to her parents). The London opportunity also lasted longer than planned: her Storm contract was later extended to a year because she booked both print and runway work during her first trip to London.
When she spoke to the media about the win, the 22-year-old said she found it very exciting and hadn’t expected to get that far. She also said she hoped her win would encourage new models in Malaysia to work towards their dreams.
Sheena Liam’s Asia’s Next Top Model Journey: Strategy, Setbacks and Standout Moments
Her family had seen this coming long before the finale. Ever since she was five and growing up in Kajang, Selangor, Sheena Liam’s mother had believed she would someday be a model. When Liam won the season finale, she proved her mother right and made Malaysia proud after consistently impressing the judges.
Getting to the top wasn’t easy. She first auditioned for the first cycle of Asia’s Next Top Model, and the 173cm-tall model decided to finish her studies before taking modelling seriously. All through the second cycle she stood out for her bleached-blonde hair and pouty lips.
She has said that meeting her rivals changed her plan. At first she wanted to stay quiet and not stand out, but once she saw the level of competition she was up against, she couldn’t stick to that plan. She said she had to go all out before each shoot, because one mistake could get her cut.
There were setbacks too. She did well in photoshoots and got repeated praise from the judges, but in episode 4 she was criticised for “playing too safe” in one shoot. After that, she took the judges’ comments to heart and started putting a little extra into her poses, aiming for something unique. Her best moment came later: in episode 11 she was the first girl called. That episode featured a Malaysia Airlines campaign shoot, but it was left out because of the Malaysia Airlines plane that went missing on March 8. AsNTM chose not to air the episode out of respect for the situation, but posted a recap on the show’s official YouTube channel.
Filipino Fans React to Sheena Liam’s Win
The finale drew a strong reaction in the Philippines. Many Filipino fans had been rooting for Jodilly Pendre and Katarina Rodriguez, who finished first and second runner-up. The hashtag #AsNTM2Finale trended on Twitter in the Philippines from Wednesday night.
Opinions were split. Many Filipino fans said they were surprised by Liam’s win but still congratulated Pendre and Rodriguez on their work. Some criticised the decision and said Liam didn’t deserve the title, while other Filipinos said the “haters” shouldn’t think they knew better or had more experience than the judges.
The finalists themselves stayed friendly. The two Filipina representatives publicly supported Sheena, who had become close to them during the competition. Rodriguez posted a heartfelt message saying that standing next to Liam in the top three had been an honour, and Jodilly also congratulated Sheena on Instagram with a photo of the two of them.
Meet the Runners-Up: Jodilly Pendre and Katarina Rodriguez
Both Pendre and Rodriguez worked hard to reach the finals. Pendre, who is tall and morena, was already a model in the Philippines before AsNTM, walking for Philippine Fashion Week and other shows and posing for various campaigns. She finished an information systems degree at the University of Santo Tomas while modelling on the side. Because of her experience and feisty personality, a lot was expected of her throughout the season.
Rodriguez was studying literature at De La Salle University at the time. She’s an athlete who had always wanted to try modelling, and her friends pushed her to audition for AsNTM. The show often called her a “diamond in the rough” because she had no professional experience before AsNTM, but her hard work and willingness to learn got her to the finals. Both were first call-outs in a few episodes, showing they could hold their own against the other Asian contestants. Their run continued a strong record for the Philippines: it followed Filipina representative Stephanie Retuya’s success in AsNTM Cycle 1, where she was runner-up to Thailand’s Jessica Amornkuldilok.
Life After the Crown: Sheena Liam the Embroidery Artist
Liam’s career after the show went in a direction few people predicted. After winning in 2014 she kept modelling internationally and was exposed to many creative practices. In 2015 she took up textile art, became an embroidery artist and held her first exhibition in Paris in 2018. She works under the name Times New Romance and is best known for embroideries of feminine figures with loose braids flowing off the canvas.
The craft started at home. As a child, Liam learnt the basics of embroidery from her mother, and she kept coming back to it as a way to express herself between travel and modelling jobs. Between shows, her suitcase became a portable studio, and she embroidered wherever she went, recording personal moments with needle and thread instead of a camera. She sees a direct link between her two careers, explaining that “modelling parallels my art in the sense I often have to use body language as a means of expressing a certain sort of mood.”
Her work has been recognised internationally. In October 2018 she had her first solo exhibition in Paris, after catching the eye of Patrice Forest, director of Item gallery and the fine art printing press Idem Paris. In 2019, The Art Gorgeous named her one of the art world’s top 200 influencers. She has also spoken up for her medium, arguing that embroidery is just as intricate as any oil painting or sculpture and deserves more respect. She later founded Cultprint, a studio residency space and gallery in Penang, and she describes her style as classic, versatile and adaptive, which mirrors how she moves between being a model, an artist and a founder.
More than a decade later, the win that surprised so many viewers looks like the start of a long and varied career. For Her World Plus readers who remember that 2014 finale, the judges’ call has held up: Sheena Liam really did become a face of modern Asia, both in front of the camera and as an artist.