Joanne Peh is clear about one thing - she wants to be happy as Joanne, not Joanne the actress.

She was the toast of the town after being talent-spotted at the Miss Singapore Universe 2002 competition and joined MediaCorp as a part-time artiste for four years before joining Mediacorp full time.

But after a rapid rise to fame and popularity, the same people who initially praised Joanne for her candour began to criticise her for being tactless.

She told Simply Her: "I was very defensive; I was very self-rightous and I didn't understand why people were doing this to me when I hadn't done anything wrong.

"But after a while, I learned that if I stopped victimising myself and worked on bettering my craft, I would be less affected by what others say about me."

Her efforts showed when she snared both the Best Actress and Top 10 Most Popular Female Artiste awards at the recent Star Awards.

Her breakthrough role in Chinese drama serial The Little Nyonya, as a chaste virgin who loses her mind after her modesty is outraged, capulated her into the league of A-listers.

One of the few lessons she has come away with after getting so much bad publicity is that "it's not so much what you say but how you say it."

And winning that award is important to her, since it shows that she "must be on the right track."

She adds: "I don't want to only exist as a celebrity."