When I was seventeen, I was the girl who struggled deeply with mathematics. I stayed after school while everyone else had already gone home and I asked so many questions that my teachers probably felt exhausted from seeing me every afternoon. I kept trying and I kept pushing until the numbers finally made sense. I moved from the bottom of the class to the top through hours of effort. When I finally scored over ninety percent and received the special Taiwanese drink that only a few high achievers were given, my classmate Kim walked past, saw the drink on my table and asked if the teacher had just given it to me. She never asked how hard I worked. She never asked how many afternoons I stayed behind. She simply assumed the achievement came from someone else.
That moment stayed with me because it was the first time I realised that when you work quietly, people do not see the effort. They look for a simpler explanation because it makes them more comfortable. They would rather believe something was handed to you instead of believing you earned it through commitment.
When I was nineteen, I made one of the most courageous decisions of my life. I left my architecture degree even though my professor warned me that I would regret it and I came to Australia with three thousand Australian dollars that I earned from working at a nursery in Taiwan. I arrived barely speaking English with no contacts, no support and no guarantee of anything. Yet the question someone asked me was whether my parents gave me the money. She never asked how I survived or what obstacles I overcame to start a completely new life. She simply assumed someone else funded my journey.
When I was twenty two, I worked quietly from a small shed. I did not go out much and I did not socialise because I was focused on building something. I did not announce how many clients I served or how many hours I spent working because I only cared about doing the work. One night at eleven my partner gently reminded me that I was working too hard because he was the only person who saw the reality. People in town assumed I was doing nothing simply because I was quiet. Later, when I started posting about my book, my bookbinding work, C.C.Within and my TEDx talk, people suddenly said how amazing everything was and then asked what my partner did and whether he supported me. It was as if a woman achieving something must automatically be connected to a man’s contribution.
When I built my bookbinding business at twenty seven from absolutely nothing, people still said my partner owned it. They had never even asked about the business structure and they did not know that he never sold supplies like I do. They simply assumed that because I had learned skills from him years ago, the entire business must be his.
When I published my book at twenty nine after one and a half years of writing and revising and rereading every sentence, someone asked my partner if I used AI to write it. They did not ask how much time I spent or how many drafts I produced or what message I hoped to give to society. They only questioned whether something else created the work for me.
All of this made me understand something important. People do not ask how you built your life. They ask who built it for you. They do not ask about your dedication or your effort. They look for shortcuts in your story because they cannot see themselves doing what you did. My partner is a man but that does not mean women cannot achieve meaningful things. My partner is older than I am but that does not mean he funded my life. Every business I built and every product I created came from my own hands and my own resources. I reinvested every dollar I earned and I used everything I had instead of complaining about what I did not have.
There are many people in society who have more resources than I ever had yet people still try to minimise the achievements of others because it helps them feel more comfortable with their own choices. Instead of asking how something was built, they search for reasons to believe you had an advantage they did not have.
If I stay quiet, people assume I am doing nothing. If I share my achievements, people assume someone else is doing it for me. So what do people want me to do. Living for their opinions is impossible and it is also unnecessary.
This is when I truly understood that people interpret your achievements through the limits of their own imagination rather than the reality of your journey. They do not see your late nights or the sacrifices you made or the fear you carried. They only see the version of your life that fits their beliefs.
So if you are worried about what others think of you, please hear this clearly. Live the life that is true to you. People will judge you no matter what but they cannot stop you from becoming the person you are meant to be.
About the author
I’m Chi Chi Wang, helping people who struggle with body image build confidence and live with purpose.
Thank you for reading. If this reflection spoke to you, I invite you to explore more articles, each one is written to help you build confidence, self-worth, and a healthier body image.
📖 My book From Ugly to Beautiful Without Surgery is now available, created from over ten years of exploration into what true beauty really means.
💡 If you’re ready to go deeper, C.C.Within offers workshops, talks, and coaching programs designed to help you rebuild self-trust and live with purpose.
The C.C.WITHIN™ Model is my original framework for building undeniable confidence without changing your appearance. First introduced in 2025.
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