Poh Ling Yeow

And then when I came to Australia, I was just the complete opposite.

I just was like free as a bird.

Kids took me under their wing.

I just loved it right away.

I remember landing and my uncle driving us back to his house and me finding even the street signs beautiful.

Like I was just like immediately enamoured with Australia.

Like I knew that I belonged here and I, yeah, I would describe my experience, early experiences here as pretty idyllic.

But I still had this other thing, which was that I felt physically, feeling physically different was a really big deal to me.

It was something that bothered me.

When you're in Australia?

Yeah.

Because you look different to the other kids.

Is that what you mean?

Yeah.

But I think when I was in Malaysia, there was some element of that as well, because I grew up with a lot of American TV.

So I felt like

The imprinting of what I thought was, you know, physical beauty had already started to happen as a really like a little kid.

But I just remember in primary school, I was standing just to the side of the tuck shop and watching these kids by, do you remember Sunny Boys?

A little triangle of joy.

Yeah.