hicks' modelling career began with the september 1987 cover of a now-defunct singaporean fashion monthly, "go". she followed this with multiple appearances on other covers, print advertisements, catwalk appearances in designer clothes, and in a music video for a top-10 hit by the singaporean band the oddfellows. a year into her modelling career, hicks began writing about her life experiences and ideas stemming from her modelling. by age twenty-one she had completed her first book, "excuse me, are you a model?" she continued to model for five more years and in 1992, at the age of twenty-four, released her second book "discuss disgust". hicks then left modelling to take a job as a department lead and copywriter in jakarta, indonesia. at the time, hicks reiterated a statement she had made in her first book: that she had never wanted to be a model in the first place. instead, her dream since age thirteen had been to be a writer. it was then that she had begun keeping a diary of her feelings and experiences, a practice she continued throughout her life.