hicks published her first work" excuse me, are you a model?" in singapore in 1990. the book is her autobiographical exposé of the modelling and fashion world and contains frequent, candid discussion about her sexuality, a subject that was not traditionally broached in singaporean society at the time. the work stirred significant controversy among singaporeans who held traditional literary and moral standards. traditionalists considered hick's work a "kiss and tell" book that disclosed "too much too soon" from an independent woman still in her early twenties. singaporean youth, on the other hand, had a starkly different view; twelve thousand copies were sold within two weeks, prompting the book's publisher to boast hicks' work as "the biggest book sensation in the annals of singapore publishing"--an accurate claim.