STEPMOTHERS everywhere take heart.

That's the encouraging message Mrs Jenny Teo, 36, hopes to pass on to other stepmums.

Mrs Teo, who owns a weight management business, has one daughter from her first marriage, three stepchildren from her current husband, Mr Samuel Teo, 49, and their own daughter, Jamie, 3.

The spunky fresh-faced mum, one of the finalists for the My Lovely Mum pageant, admitted that it's not always easy being a stepmother.

She said: 'You have to learn to balance your love for all the children.

'I'm not going to separate them into his and mine, because I don't want them to feel like they are not my children.'

Mrs Teo met Mr Teo eight years ago through a mutual friend. She had already been separated from her first husband for three years before that and the divorce came through that year.

Her daughter Eunice Wong, 13, was from that first marriage.

Mr Teo was also a single parent. He was divorced from his first wife in 1998 and had three children from that marriage - Sheryl, 19, Sherman, 17 and Sherlyn, 12.

It wasn't long before the pair brought their children together for weekly activities such as swimming.

Within the year, they moved in together into a four-room HDB flat.

In 2003, they got married and in 2006, they set up their own weight management business.

Now, the family lives in a private apartment in the Upper East Coast area.

Even though stepmums may be stereotyped as being wicked, Sheryl knows better.

She said of Mrs Teo: 'She's far from an evil stepmum.

'I can talk to her about anything and she can always tell if something is wrong.'