It was an almost shoo-in win for The New Paper New Face finalist, Shahirah Price. And the 18-year-old Marketing student from Nanyang Polytechnic makes no bones about inheriting her good looks from her British father and Malay mother.

Shahirah gave her take on the highs and lows of having mixed parentage.

"Being mixed brings you places"

Before winning the New Face 2008 contest, Shahirah was already modelling on a part-time basis.

And she thinks that her Pan-Asian looks give her an advantage over others. She said: "In terms of modelling, it brings you places because people like the Pan-Asian look. They notice you more."

Name-calling

As a child, Shahirah never gave much thought about why her parents looked different from each other, and why she looked the way she did. But after entering secondary school, she could not avoid the labelling that arose because of her distinctive looks. Schools mates would call her "mat saleh" (Malay term for Caucasian), and there were those few minor bad experiences she had to cope with.

Still, she said: "Race never really mattered to me. But when schoolmates started calling me names, it did make me feel a bit uncomfortable. People who don't know me don't like me because they think I'm white, and therefore stuck up."

"But I didn't really mind - it didn't affect me much," she added.

Aside from those incidents, Shahirah did not have much difficulty fitting in with her peers, as she has a group of close friends who accept her for who she is.

Apart from being stereotyped this way, Shahirah has never encountered any serious form of discrimination in Singapore - a country she believes is open and accepting of people from different ethnic backgrounds.

Best of both worlds

Coming from a multi-ethnic family, Shahirah's upbringing was neither extremely traditional, nor overly liberal.

She said: "My parents are quite open-minded. They allow me to go home slightly later than the curfew imposed on my peers. They're ok with me dating, trying different jobs and even modelling. So long as it's not skanky or sleazy."

Her relatives in the UK were also very supportive of her participation in the just-ended The New Paper New Face contest. They even sent emails to encourage her from afar.

Even festivals are reasons for double joy, as the family celebrates both Hari Raya and Christmas. Shahirah said: "Yes! My entire family celebrates Hari Raya as well as Christmas, where we'll usually stay overnight at a hotel and have Christmas lunch the next day."

"We can complement each other"

So what does Shahirah think about dating or marrying a foreigner, since her own parents have different cultural backgrounds?

She replied: "I think it can be quite cool although certain things might clash due to the different ways we converse.

"Some people think that you have to date someone who is similar to you in certain aspects, but I think that both sides can understand each other more if they weren't too similar. We can complement each other too."