The 'Ah Girls Go Army' actress opens up about the struggles she has faced in her life, saying: "There have been emotional painful moments in my life. My relationship to mental health, when I was younger, was very hard."&nbsp;

"Since &lsquo;Ah Girls Go Army&rsquo; came out, the responses have been mixed &mdash; good and bad, extremes. But personally, on Instagram, I&rsquo;ve been getting a lot of positive comments: A lot of fans ask me about myself, and I&rsquo;m very open with them. I don&rsquo;t feel like I have a lot of secrets to hide.&nbsp;
I didn&rsquo;t really understand the hoo-hah about the 'Amanda Man' drama, before the movie came out. But I can understand the concern, because in movies, transgender people are mostly portrayed as a joke. But I knew my character wasn't like that, the reason why I was chosen for the role wasn't because it was to make fun of me, it was because of my fighting ability.&nbsp;
And my character is not trans. It isn't mentioned at all; normally in movies, when they want to portray a transgender person, they usually get a cis-gender person, or sometimes they get a guy to cross dress as a girl, and then they make fun of them. But in 'Ah Girls Go Army' we have a transgender person playing a biological woman. My character's gender doesn't come up in the movie at all &mdash; in the movie, I'm just a normal girl, it's just that I'm taller than everyone else. I don't want to sound boastful, but I think it's a great milestone for my community."

"There have been emotional painful moments in my life: People have called me bapok, faggot, ah gua. Growing up, I was bullied a lot, I was on the receiving end of a lot of violence.&nbsp;That was what drove me to study multiple martial arts. But it wasn't just because I wanted to protect myself: I just wanted to understand the notion of violence, including how to avoid it.&nbsp;
Some of the scars on my arms are from my three cats &mdash; when you bathe them they can really get violent. But others are self-harm scars. My relationship to mental health, when I was younger, was very hard. But these days I'm coping very well.&nbsp;
When I was younger, I didn't like my body at all. I went through gender dysphoria, I still go through that every day. I look in the mirror and I wonder, 'why do my shoulders look so broad? I wish my hips were wider...' These sorts of thoughts. But after a certain point, you do find a degree of peace, though it isn&rsquo;t complete."
Photography Lavender Chang
Styling Gregory Woo

Martial artist Kelly Kimberly Cheong opens up: "Eventually, you do find a degree of peace"

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