the dirt with nadya hutagalung

By Pat Law • Jan 31st, 2011 • Category: Lead Story, The Dirt

With all who have grown up with MTV Asia (some 70 million of you), I have no doubt you have familiarized yourself with the legendary VJ, Nadya Hutagalung. Voted consistently over the past decade as one of the most beautiful women Asia has to offer, it is easy to dismiss Nadya as yet another pretty face. After all, when local and media publications wax fanatical about the Singapore’s Most Gorgeous Woman (Female Magazine, Singapore), a hype which she evidently lives up to, seldom do they see her beyond skin deep.

Or so I thought.

Nadya has an appetite for Life bigger than I do with my beloved chicken rice. A wardrobe of different clothes she wears, Nadya is an artist, actor, host, entrepreneur, humanitarian, mother, and oh yes, that one we all know – model. It is no surprise when Asiaweek magazine crowned her one of Asia’s Leading Trendmakers, alongside the humanity royalty we know – Dalai Lama, Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun Fatt.

An eco-activist front lady of Green Kampong, Nadya is the ambassador for the World Wildlife Funds Earth Hour in Singapore. To further reinforce her passion in eco-living, Nadya launched her own sustainable jewelry line, O-SEL (“clear light” in Tibetan). As I listened to her explain to me the concept of ethnical diamond mining, a sudden realization hit me – she was wearing Green before Green was the new Black to air-kissing Hollywood wannabies of the entertainment industry. Nadya was the real deal. Green Kampong wasn’t born as a fashion statement. Green Kampong was born because she cares about the environment more than half of our nation combined.

I caught up with this fine, multi-facet lady, to dig the dirt on what makes her feet so firmly planted on the ground. Special thanks to Nadya for meeting me in spite of being ill.