Growing up, I was the kid who was labelled too loud, too different, too intense. In rooms where sameness was currency, I stuck out like a neon sign at a black-tie dinner. For a long time, I tried to dim myself to fit in.

I'm glad it didn't work.

After studying at RMIT and spending over a decade in the world of advertising and digital media - running campaigns for global brands, managing high-stakes accounts, building things from scratch - I hit the wall that so many high-achievers never talk about. Burnout. The real kind. Sleeping four hours a night. Forgetting to eat. Moving fast enough that I didn't notice I was falling apart.

That experience changed everything.

In 2017, I co-founded Safe Space - not because it was a smart business move (it wasn't, at first) - but because I had lived the broken system firsthand and couldn't unsee it. Today, Safe Space is one of Southeast Asia's leading mental healthtech platforms, supporting 200+ companies across APAC, operating in 30 languages, and delivering a 94.3% Net Promoter Score that I'm genuinely proud of. We've been recognised with two HR Vendor of the Year awards in 2024, and I was named to Harper's Bazaar's 2024 Power Women list - which, honestly, still makes me smile.

But Safe Space is ONE part of who I am.

The other part - the part that lives in the rooms I speak in, the communities I show up for, the people I mentor - is the Antoinette who still remembers what it felt like to be told she didn't belong. That part doesn't go away. It drives everything.

I show up for women who are done playing small. For founders who are building with purpose instead of just profit. For LGBTQ+ communities who deserve to lead as their full selves. For young people who were told the system wasn't built for them - and who are right, but whose potential is limitless anyway.

My brand, my mission, my movement - it's simple: Take Up Space.

Not because the world will hand it to you. But because you have earned every inch of it.