In a just-introduced weekly “newsletter”, Vivy Yusof revealed that she is facing a health challenge

One of Vivy Yusof’s Instagram posts to introduce her newsletter Sincerely, Vivy

Less than a week after sisters Bertilla and Brianna Wong of Singaporean clothing label The Closet Lover shared that they suffer from lupus, Vivy Yusof, too, disclosed that she is afflicted with the same disease. She did this through what she called a “newsletter”, sent directly to your inbox when you sign up for it. She called the missive Sincerely, Vivy, a naming convention that takes after the hackneyed title of a Netflix show, With Love, Meghan. Launched last month, the dispatch is “a slightly grown up version” of Proudduck, the blog she started when she went to school in London in the mid-2000s. On Instagram, she said she was “paying tribute to where it all began”.

Proudduck was about Ms Yusof, a public journal of her time abroad, and when she met her husband. In the traditional sense, paying tribute usually involves offering something of value, respect, or honor to someone else—a leader, for example. So, seemingly honoring oneself isn’t really a common practice. The act of “paying tribute” usually implies an external recipient, especially a person held in high esteem. While private self-acknowledgment can be confidence-boosting, publicly broadcasting one’s “tributes” to oneself can be off-putting and seen as attention-seeking in a negative way. The first could be self-recognition, the second easily conceit.

Paying tribute to oneself isn’t really a common practice. The act of “paying tribute” usually implies an external recipient

In her latest newsletter—tagged “entry #3”—sent out three days ago, which enjoyed a teaser on Instagram 24 hours earlier, she described somewhat lightheartedly the lead-up to her lupus diagnosis a year prior. Titled ‘When it rains, it pours”, she wrote, in her signature conversational style: “I had all the classic flu symptoms, but the joint pain wouldn’t go away.” After several hospital visits, it was confirmed by her doctor that she had lupus. She even joked that when she heard that, she thought the doctor had said, “lipas” (Malay for cockroach). “Why on earth would you guys do that, I silently scolded my internal organs,” she added, as if addressing her fans, which is presumably large in number as Sincerely, Vivy is written to them.

After issue #3, Ms Yusof decided to monetise her newsletter. She started charging for sending it to your inbox. In one Instagram post, she wrote that the response to her new communication channel “has been absolutely overwhelming.” It is not known if, in this, she saw a business opportunity. But she claimed that “thousands” wrote to say they have not received her dispatches (some apparently “even scold[ed]” her). So her best option was to “move the platform to something more reliable”. And chargeable. But you do not pay for nothing. For US$5 a month or US$55 a year, you get full access to her archive, entries every Tuesday, and discounts on her favourite brands, probably Duck and Lilit, both reported on social media to have closed at some malls.

Vivi Yusof, in a self-promotional shot, carrying her own Dick bag. Photo: vivyyusof/Instagram

Remarkably, in one Substack post (wonky grammar aside), Ms Yusof tried to emphasise the value of the US$55 yearly subscription: “If you pick the annual plan, honestly, it’s not even one printed dUCk scarf. Hehe.” Why she was downplaying the subscription cost is not clear. But by framing it against the price of her ‘luxury’ tudungs, she was making the yearly subscription seem insignificant in cost, alienating those who find it a significant expense. Sure, her fans who readily purchase her scarves likely see it as humorously highlighting the subscription’s affordability, but contrasting it with a high-priced item from one of her own brands felt out of touch, especially if her audience—not necessarily her customer base—has varying financial capacities. Netizens have been unanimous: tone-deaf.

It deserves marvelling at that Ms Yusof so quickly assumed—just after three issues of her newsletter—enough of her fans and past readers of Prodduck had found her content valuable enough to pay for, even at a seeming fraction of the cost of one her products, without considering that it can be seen as arrogant, especially when the writing isn’t exactly the stuff of the Pulitzer Prize. Or that the move a sense of entitlement—the belief that her thoughts and opinions are inherently worth paying for and revisiting. It is hard to disconnect her effort with conceit, especially if Sincerely, Vivy implies an inflated sense of self-importance regarding her writing abilities and its appeal.

Still, that newsletter that revealed her diagnosis received many messages of sympathy. It is not clear if this is the intended effect. Vivy Yusof and her husband has been charged with CBT (the case was supposed to be heard on 10 March, according to the Malay Mail, but nothing came out of that) pertaining to funds of their fashion e-commerce site FashionValet. Pending court case can significantly impact the reputation and brand of a tenaciously-public figure. Launching a newsletter, especially one slyly framed as a “tribute” to a seemingly more personal and less controversial past, can be seen as an effort to rebrand herself and reshape public perception. Or, perhaps, Sincerely, Vivy is just the innocuous making of her next book that you are paying her to write.

Updated: 10 May 2025

Photo: Zhao Xiangji