FOREVER WOW - Mother's Day 2026

More Than MOM

This Mother's Day, Young Hungry Free is writing a love letter to the original rule-breakers. WOW is MOM, flipped upside down. It's a small detail, but an intentional one because that's exactly what this campaign is about: looking at the women we've always known and truly seeing them past the labels we know them for. Mothers are daughters. Sisters. Friends. Individuals with their own beautiful layers of complexities, emotions, and thoughts. FOREVER WOW is our love letter to her transfiguration through these phases, and never forgetting their real identities.

Three Women. Three Versions of Wow.

At the heart of the campaign is a candid, unscripted conversation between three generations of women from the same family: Sandra, a new mother navigating the tender early months with her 8-month-old son; Jewels, a solo mother drawing strength from the woman who raised her; and Annie, their mother and now a grandmother of four; a woman who raised her daughters largely on her own, and did everything to the best of her capability.

Their conversation with our team is everything: warm, funny, tear-filled, and achingly real.

With three different versions of motherhood and grandmotherhood happening, what does that mean to each of you?

Jewels: I think going through motherhood made me realise how my mother was a mother. So, there are a lot of things that you don't really think about. You think, “Why is my mom always nagging at me? Why is my mom always complaining that ‘I need to do this, need to do that’?”

But as I became a mother myself, I started to realise that the things that she does make sense. She actually has a reason behind the things that she does, and it makes me respect her even more.

Sandra: Actually, I also wanted to say the same. Because I always knew that my mom had been going through a lot by bringing up the four of us.

Growing up, I always knew that it was very tough for my mother to bring up the four of us, mostly by herself, because my dad was busy working. I never knew it was that hard until I experienced it myself.

After I entered motherhood, I really, really appreciate my mom a lot more. And I always feel more emotional whenever I go back to my mother's place, or whenever she asks me a question (about my wellbeing). It makes me feel like, “Oh my God, I'm also a baby”.

Just like how my baby relies on me, I also rely on her.

Annie: Wah, you all make me want to cry. Yeah, I’m very touched by their words. As a mother of four, it's not easy.

My husband was so busy, you know, supporting a family of six. He's the only breadwinner. It's not easy for my husband either. Married for over 30 years, he's been the only one supporting the family.

Then, because motherhood is not easy, I think, to all the mothers out there, it's not an easy job. It's 24/7. No rest, no holiday, no PH, no bonus, nothing. It's for life.

Even if your children are married – forever, they are still your children. That's true. You're still worrying about them. Even though they are parents already.

As a grandmother, of course, I'm blessed. Most of the grandparents out there, they wish this too. And I'm very glad that I'm so blessed. I was not even 50, and I already got my first grandson. A very young grandmother. And as of now, I already have four grandchildren.

Among my friends, I think I'm the only youngest grandma at the moment. In fact, I'm very young now too!

But as a grandma, it's a different role already, because I leave it to my children to have their own way of raising their children.

Even nowadays, the generations are different. The way of education is also different. So I follow their way. I can't use my old ways. Nowadays, youngsters are willing to listen.

But at this moment of time, I feel very, very blessed to have four great, lovely daughters and four great, cute grandchildren. And of course, my husband too haha!

For Sandra and Jewels, what is one unforgettable story about your mom?

Sandra: My mom has four daughters, right? So we have two other (older) sisters. From young, I’ve known her to be a very fair person. I have never felt that she's biased whatsoever.

But there was this one time when we went to Malaysia when we were young, and the customs were packed with tourists. I think I was twelve. If I'm twelve, it means my elder sister is sixteen, and Jewels was eight years old.

So, my mom made me carry all the tau sa piah, bottles of chilli sambal paste, and curry paste, everything (we bought). I carried the bags on both sides of my shoulders. And, it was a mess at the customs.

She held Jewels' hand and my elder sister's hand, and she just ran and squeezed across to the customs. But she didn't care about me!

That was the only time that I felt like, “Oh my god, middle child syndrome”. And by the time I met her, she was like, “eh, Sandra leh?” Then I carried the tau sapiah and called out to her, “Mi, mi!”. Very poor thing.

That was the one incident that I really, really will never forget!

But, she really is a very fair mother. It's just that one time that I feel like, “OMG, you made me carry all the tau sa piah.”

Jewels: For my story, this was when I was like, five years old and Sandra was about nine years old.

When we were young, Sandra had this thing she liked to re-wear her clothes. She would always wear the same outfit out.

By the way, because I'm the youngest kid, I don't ever get punished by my mother.

So back in the days, they used to have a lot of very crazy and psychotic ways of punishing their kids, and I think my mom was one of them. She would use chilli padi and put it on their lips – that kind of thing.

So, one of my core memories was that one time, we wanted to go out, and Sandra only had these two outfits that she wore on repeat. She insists on wearing the same shirt and the same shorts every time.

So, my mother went a bit crazy, and then she started screaming at Sandra to change out of that particular outfit. Sandra was like, “No!” and threw a tantrum – she cried and everything. I just stood at the corner and watched.

Then my mother was like, “Okay, you want to wear this outfit out, right?” She pulled her to the toilet. Then she took the hose and just hosed her down. “Now your clothes are wet, you better change your outfit before we go out!” she said.

And I just stood at the corner, and stared at them like, "Oh my God".

So, as the youngest kid, I learned that next time, I just wear whatever she tells me to wear. I don't want the same thing happening to me. Yeah, that was a core memory.

What is an unforgettable story about your two daughters?

Annie: There was one time, Sandra had an accident when she was young; she was carrying this hot bowl of macaroni. She was about 3 or 4 years old. And she spilt it all over her body.

Then I quickly removed everything and rinsed her under the cold water, and immediately brought her to the doctor. If not, then she may have been scarred.

You know, Sandra was very cute back then. She liked to have a big bowl of rice and have all the ingredients piled up. And she will just eat like that.

When they were kids, and I was dealing with her other sisters, Jewels would never make me angry. She won’t get caned by me. Never ‘kena whack’.

And Sandra, I think, I whacked her the most. Because when she said she's the middle child, now to think about it, maybe I did neglect her, here and there. Which I didn’t notice – but I was too busy, as I mentioned, it was one to four, and it's not easy.

So I tried my best. Hopefully, now as a mother, they understand where I came from. Without any assistance in those days.

Is there anything you’d like to say to your two daughters, having gone through motherhood, and to your younger self now, as a mother and grandmother?

Annie: As a mother, it's not easy, okay? Be patient, keep moving forward, do your best. Think before you act!

Give your children more love, more attention. Do your best. I know every mother will do the same thing.

Something I would tell my 30-year-younger self: I'm great! I did a good job. I have no regrets – no regrets about getting married so early either, because I'm happier than most people, and becoming a mother-in-law so early.

Now I have four grandchildren, and I hope they stay healthy, grow up quickly, and that everything goes well for them! To my girls, you have your own lives, and you need to take care of yourselves.

I’m strong. Crying is nothing to me because I've been through so much, and my children have been through so much too. I just hope they have a better life than me.

Is there anything both of you would like to say to Mom now that both of you are mothers?

Sandra: I think it’s thank you and also, sorry. Sorry that we didn't listen to you back then. You would tell us to ‘go and wash the dishes’, ‘go and clean this’, ‘go and pack this’, ‘go and pack that’, and we always say ‘later lah, later lah’.

We never understood why we had to do it immediately, why everything was rushed, or why we had to keep everything clean, but the intention was for our own good.

After becoming a mom, I truly understand that ‘oh my God, this thing had to be put away immediately’ or ‘this has to be cleaned immediately’. Why? Because of our children, all she wanted was the best for us.

For that, I want to say sorry that last time we really never listened to you, and that we made you very angry and thank you because she knows that I have been going through a lot.

I'm not somebody who shares, and she will always support me very, very quietly. It could be through a simple text like, “eh, have you eaten?” or “Today, you tabao (food) or you Grab?”

And she would always randomly call me because now I'm not staying with her, and I was going through a lot. For that, thank you for all the silent support – because it made me stronger.

Jewels: To keep it simple and short: I don't know what I'd do without my mother.

She helped me a lot; I still stay with my mom and she helps me take care of my son every single day, and on days when I really can't pull myself out of bed, or nights that I can’t even wake up to my son screaming in my face – she's there every day.

She does the house chores – even now, I still don't fold my own clothes, and she helps me wash my son's clothes. She does everything for me, and I really don't know what I will do without her.

I always tell her, sometimes I feel like I don't deserve to be a mother because my mom is doing the mothering for me – but at the same time, she has taught me so much about how to be a mother because through everything that she does, she'll be like “okay, you need to do this”, or “you need to do that”.

Now, after one year, I learned from that, and she always tells me to be strong. She’s seen me cry, scream at her, break down or say things like “I don't want to do this anymore, I don't want to take care of my son anymore,” and at the end of the day, she’s the one picking me up and picking my son up.

Being a mother is not something you can walk out of, and in the end, she's the one waiting for me at the end of the tunnel, helping me do everything.

I think that's the best gift I have.