Novita Lam
Novita Lam | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1994 |
| Education | Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration (Hons) |
| Alma mater | National University of Singapore |
Novita Lam (born in 1994) is an Indonesian born Chinese residing in Singapore. She was working in Citibank and Bank of Singapore before joining AWSt as Head of Partnerships & Ecosystem[1] She is best known for being a beauty and lifestyle influencer who currently has over 441k followers on Instagram and 129.6k followers on TikTok, as of March 2026.[2][3]
Background
Personal life & family
Novita Lam was born in 1994 to Indonesian-Chinese parents and has a brother and older sister, Heinrich and Stephanie Lam.[4][5] As part of the 放个大招给你看 (translates to Let Me Show You A Big Move) trend on TikTok, she also revealed her mandarin name, 林竹意.[6]
Education
Novita had been enrolled at the National University of Singapore (NUS) from between 2013 and 2017.[1] During this time, she was often involved in Summer and Exchange programs at overseas institutions like Fudan University, HEC Paris, and Imperial College Business School.[1]
In 2018, she officially graduated from NUS with a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A), Finance (hons).[1]
Career
Social media influencer (Present)
Novita Lam is active on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, where she often posts aesthetic photos of her travels across the globe. She also shares beauty tips and products, as well as her fitness journey.[2] Currently, she has amassed over 305,000 followers on Instagram and 60,400 followers on TikTok.[2][3]
Paid partnerships
She is often seen to participate in advertisements and paid partnerships with both local and international brands, including Shopee, Lazada, and Pocari Sweat.[7][8][9] In fact, other than her day-to-day TikToks, many of her partnerships on the platform have gone viral. As of July 2022, her post for Under Armour managed to rack up over 388,000 views.[10]
Making the news for her trip to Germany during the Covid-19 Pandemic (October 2, 2021)
On 2 October 2021, local newspaper The Straits Times published an article on the Singapore-Germany Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) Scheme.[11] Novita Lam had been interviewed and featured as one of the members of the first tour group from Singapore to leave for Germany, which had departed on 22 September in the same year. Her group was among the first in not just Singapore, but also Asia to travel in Germany since the Pandemic.
Speaking to The Straits Times, she spoke of her first overseas trip in a while and commented that there were “fewer people crowding the streets and squares than in Singapore”.[11]
“The step towards normality feels reassuring."[11]
- Novita Lam on the reopening of borders during the Pandemic.
Banker (2018 to 2020)
Novita worked as a full-time banker with Citibank Singapore from January 2018 to September 2020.[1] She has continued to post TikToks of her work every now and then, which appears to be in a corporate environment. However, it is unclear whether she has since taken on a similar role at a different company.
Product Marketing Intern (2017)
During her penultimate year at NUS, Novita became a Product Marketing Intern at the Bank of Singapore.[1]
Business analyst (2015 to 2016)
During her exchange at Fudan University, Novita took up the role of Business Analyst at 6e Digital from August 2015 to July 2016.[1]
Newsworthy incidents
The controversial Instagram post (March 2026)
In 3 March 2026, Lam drew significant criticism from netizens after making a pun deemed insensitive on her Instagram and TikTok, referencing countries involved in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.[12][13]
The video in question showed Lam jogging in the Marina Bay area, with the Strava stats of her jog shown on screen. The video also came with the caption:[12][13]
"Iran this, Israel that. IRAN 10km and the pain ISREAL"
The caption was a play on words that used the names of Iran and Israel to highlight the demanding nature of her exercise.[12][13]
Public backlash
With both Iran and Israel currently locked in an escalating conflict, many netizens felt that the timing of the post was highly inappropriate.[12][13] While both posts appeared to have been deleted, numerous screenshots had already surfaced online.[12][13]
Many netizens criticized Lam directly on her TikTok account for her "lack of self-awareness" given the seriousness of the geopolitical situation.[12][13] Comments were subsequently turned off on some of her TikTok videos.[12][13]
In a thread created on Reddit titled “Influencer Novita Lam with a disgusting Instagram story that has been taken down quickly”, netizens pointed out that there may be Singaporeans who are stuck in the Middle East due to the conflict, making her use of the situation as a pun particularly insensitive. At the time of the controversy, the Singapore government had advised Singaporeans to defer travel to the Middle East due to the escalating conflict.[12][13]
However, not all netizens were critical of Lam's post. Some felt that those who were offended by her pun were overreacting to what they viewed as harmless wordplay.[12][13] Additionally, some commenters, apparently inspired by what they saw as her "wit," even contributed their own country-related puns in response to the controversy.[12][13]
Lam's apology
Lam subsequently posted an apology on her Instagram story, where she sincerely apologized for her "insensitive and hurtful" post. Lam also added:[12][13]
"I removed it as soon as I realised my mistake."
In her apology, she also promised to be "more mindful moving forward."[12][13]
References / Citations
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Lam, Novita. “Novita Lam”. LinkedIn. n.d. Accessed 29 July 2022.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lam, Novita. “novitalam”. Instagram. n.d. Accessed 29 July 2022.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lam, Novita. “novita.lam”. TikTok. n.d. Accessed 29 July 2022.
- ↑ Lam, Heinrich. “heinrichlam”. Instagram. n.d. Accessed 29 July 2022.
- ↑ Lam, Stephanie. “stephielam09”. Instagram. n.d. Accessed 29 July 2022.
- ↑ Lam, Novita. “novita.lam”. TikTok. November 25, 2021. Accessed 29 July 2022.
- ↑ Lam, Novita. “novitalam”. Instagram. December 7, 2020. Accessed 29 July 2022.
- ↑ Lam, Novita. “novitalam”. Instagram. May 26, 2020. Accessed 29 July 2022.
- ↑ Lam, Novita. “novitalam”. Instagram. June 3, 2020. Accessed 29 July 2022.
- ↑ Lam, Novita. “novita.lam”. TikTok. May 12, 2022. Accessed 29 July 2022.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Wortz, Tilman. “Over 1,000 people have travelled under S'pore-Germany Vaccinated Travel Lane scheme”. The Straits Times. October 2, 2021. Accessed 29 July 2022.
- ↑ 12.00 12.01 12.02 12.03 12.04 12.05 12.06 12.07 12.08 12.09 12.10 12.11 Sidin, Nurshahiylia. “S'pore influencer Novita Lam's ‘Iran this, Israel that’ pun sparks backlash, she apologises” Mothership, 4 March, 2026. Accessed 4 March 2026.
- ↑ 13.00 13.01 13.02 13.03 13.04 13.05 13.06 13.07 13.08 13.09 13.10 13.11 Lian, Gerome. "S'pore influencer posts apology after backlash over pun using names of Iran & Israel on social media." MustShareNews, 4 March, 2026. Accessed 4 March 2026.