A pregnant school dropout at 16, single mum now owns home and brow business
Samantha Koh became a mother at 16 and ended up raising her son without her husband a year later.
Today, the 35-year-old runs Browlicious, her home-based eyebrow embroidery business. She also owns a resale flat in Ang Mo Kio and is training to become a Pilates instructor.
Stomp met Samantha at the cosy three-room flat where she now lives and works.
She gets a little emotional when she talks about her son, Shinn. Looking at the young man he has become, Samantha sometimes finds it hard to believe how far they have come together.
Thinking back to those early years, what Samantha remembers most clearly is the fierce sense of responsibility she felt as a young mother.
"Pregnancy is a life," she said. "It's not like a job you can quit when you don't like it."
Shinn was born in June 2007, just weeks before Samantha turned 17. It was a time when support for teenage mothers was limited.
"Back then, there wasn't counselling support or organisations helping young mums," she said. "It felt like you were completely on your own."
The moment she decided to leave
Samantha married her then-boyfriend after discovering she was pregnant. He was 13 years older than her.
But the marriage soon became strained.
The turning point came when Shinn was only a few months old.
During an argument, her husband spanked the baby.
"That was the last straw," Samantha said.
Shinn was about six months old when Samantha decided she could no longer stay in the marriage.
"He was always drinking, coming home drunk and shouting vulgarities," she said. "I didn't want my son to grow up seeing that."
She pushed for a divorce, although it took years before the paperwork was finalised.
In the meantime, she was largely raising Shinn alone after her ex-husband moved out of her family home. He rarely visited and provided almost no financial support.
Instead of pursuing the matter in court, Samantha focused on building a stable life for her child.
"I've already been living without it," she told Stomp. "So I just continued."
Much of her resilience, she believes, came from her grandmother, who helped raise her and later supported her decision to leave the marriage.
Her grandmother, who died in 2020 at the age of 94, had encouraged her not to stay in a relationship that was no longer working.
"She told me, if it's useless, then divorce," Samantha recalled.
Facing judgment
Being a teenage mother also meant dealing with harsh judgment from others. Most of Samantha's friends drifted away after learning about her pregnancy.
"Everyone left," she said. "Only one friend stayed."
But the criticism eventually became a source of motivation.
"Every kick they gave me made me stronger," she said. "You either become stronger or weaker. I chose to be stronger."
Starting from zero
Without academic qualifications, Samantha had to take whatever work she could find.
At one point, she was juggling three jobs — handling paperwork for two bosses during the day while working as a cashier at a pub at night.
"I basically started from zero," she said.
Money was tight and survival was her immediate priority.
"For the first half of his life, my focus was money," she said.
When Shinn was a baby, even basic childcare required improvisation. Cloth diapers sewn by his great-grandmother were used instead of disposable ones, and feeding bottles were sterilised by boiling them in hot water.
Long hours meant sacrificing time with her son — something she later realised she could never make up for.
"You think you can buy back time later," she said. "But it doesn't work that way."
Still, giving up was never an option.
Asked what kept her going through those difficult years, Samantha did not hesitate.
"Love," she said.
"I would burn down this whole building for him.
"Even if I cannot give him a luxurious life, it's okay. I'll give him the bare minimum first. Then we work towards something better together."
Changing her life
Years later, Samantha found herself working in the nightlife industry and eventually running a pub.
One morning, she woke up hungover and looked at Shinn.
She realised she did not want him to grow up seeing that version of her.
"I asked myself if I would want him to smoke or drink like me one day," she said. "The answer was no."
That realisation prompted another major turning point.
She quit smoking and drinking almost immediately, sold the pub and began searching for a different path.
"I stopped everything cold turkey," she said.
Building something of her own
Her next career came about unexpectedly.
A friend's wife, a Korean eyebrow embroidery artist, encouraged Samantha to learn the craft.
At first, she resisted.
"I told her, no way," Samantha said. "I've never been in the beauty industry."
But after months of persuasion, she decided to give it a try.
In 2019, Samantha started Browlicious, her eyebrow embroidery business which she now runs from home.
The work took about a year of intensive training to master — something she believes should not be rushed.
"If you ruin someone's eyebrows, they have to live with it for years," she said. "So I take it very seriously."
Beyond aesthetics, she sees her work as helping clients feel better about themselves.
She believes that when people look good, they often feel more confident too — something she has seen firsthand in the reactions of clients when they see their new brows.
A home of their own
In 2024, Samantha reached a milestone she had been working towards for years: buying her own home.
She viewed more than 30 units before choosing the flat she now lives in with Shinn.
The unit was dark and rundown when she first saw it. Today, it has been transformed into a warm, liveable space.
"I just had the feeling — this is the place," Samantha told Stomp.
They moved in with their Yorkshire terrier and two Dumbo rats in August 2024.
The son she raised
Shinn is now 19.
When asked what makes her proudest, Samantha does not mention academic results or achievements.
Instead, she talks about his character.
"He has very good manners," she said. "When he meets people, he greets them politely."
She also made sure he understood the value of hard work from a young age.
During school holidays, she encouraged him to take part-time jobs — from cashiering at A&W to doing stewarding work at hotels.
"He learned to take hardship," she said.
Samantha believes children learn responsibility not from lectures but from what they see their parents do.
Those experiences helped him grow into a responsible young man.
"He knows what is right and what is wrong," she said proudly.
She also allowed him room to make mistakes while growing up.
"When you're older, you cannot afford to make mistakes anymore," she said.
For Samantha, character matters more than academic achievements.
"He respects me not just because I'm his mother," she said. "I think it's because he has seen the effort."
Now that he is older, their relationship feels different too.
"We're more like friends," she said with a smile.
Samantha has been in a relationship for the past three years, but she says she is not in a rush to remarry.
"I'm quite happy with how things are now," she added.
Her partner, who has a child of his own, has been supportive of her journey. When she hesitated to buy the Ang Mo Kio flat because it was slightly beyond her budget, he encouraged her to go ahead and view it anyway.
He later helped with the renovation costs — something Samantha initially struggled to accept after years of doing everything on her own.
"He taught me how to accept help," she said.
Advice to others
Looking back, Samantha hopes her story encourages others who may be struggling.
One of the most important lessons she has learned is to not face difficulties alone.
"If help is available, go and get it," she said, citing Babes Pregnancy, a charity that supports pregnant teens and their families.
When she was younger, resources for teenage mothers were limited. Today, she is glad there are organisations offering counselling and support.
"Just go for help," she said. "Sometimes, strangers can understand your situation better than family members."
She also believes parents should not neglect themselves.
For her, that means continuing to pursue her own interests and growth.
Samantha began training to become a Pilates instructor at BASI Pilates Academy last year.
As a child, she described herself as adventurous and hyperactive — climbing trees, jumping from balconies and getting into mischief.
Today, she admits she is more cautious and sometimes afraid to try new things.
That is partly why she decided to push herself to pursue Pilates in her 30s.
She credits much of her early guidance to her mentor Alice Ng, whom she describes as "like the elder sister I never had".
She also expressed gratitude to Jamie Foo, the academy's managing director, for supporting her journey.
"I also want to show my son that it's never too late to try something new," Samantha said.
"You have to love yourself and improve yourself. Only then can you become the best version of yourself for your children."
No regrets
Nearly two decades after becoming a teenage mother, Samantha says she has no regrets about the path she chose.
Life, she believes, will always bring challenges.
"There will always be hiccups," she said.
What matters is learning from them and continuing to move forward.
The life she and Shinn now share, she built step by step — through difficult decisions, long hours of work and unwavering determination.
And when she looks at the young man he has become, she knows the difficult years were worth it.
"He grew up with me," Samantha said. "In a way, we grew up together."
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