The Z List: William Seng, aka Instagram’s accomplished ‘boyfriend’, is just as wholesome as you think he is

From cooking, baking and making coffee to taking the best photos and videos around, he has been unanimously dubbed Instagram’s accomplished boyfriend. Meet The Z List, content creator and photographer extraordinaire, William Seng.

Although the term ‘Internet Boyfriend’ first circulated in the 2010s, there have been many Internet Boyfriends over the years. There is a particular aura about them that befits the title: they’re almost always charming, kind, authentic and, the most obvious hint, of course: their Instagram posts are peppered with comments “Where can I find a guy like this?!” or “This man has set our standards too high.” (These are directly plucked from William Seng’s Instagram page.)

The Internet Boyfriend has ranged from the likes of Harry Styles to Jacob Elordi; from BTS’ RM to Cha Eun-Woo. The general appeal is that the Internet Boyfriend is dating… well, us, the internet. We get a tiny glimpse of his real-life charm and humour, and we project the idea of the ‘perfect boyfriend’ onto him. But in William’s case, his status as a boyfriend is what makes him swoonworthy.

“I actually put ‘the boyfriend’ in my Instagram bio when I reached around a hundred thousand followers,” William tells me. (Today, he has surpassed the 1.3 million mark.) “When I walked outside, people started recognising me, they’re like, ‘Hey, you’re the boyfriend, right?’ It’s happened many times. ‘Cause I take photos of my girlfriend and I also cook for my girlfriend sometimes.”

‘Sometimes’ is quite the understatement. If you spend even a few seconds on William’s Instagram page, you’ll see that it’s wholly dedicated to POV Reels surrounding his relationship: making a range of sweet treats for his girlfriend from cinnamon rolls to strawberry tiramisu; surprising his girlfriend with thoughtful gifts; filming travel vlogs on their trips together. Being a devoted boyfriend, on top of photography and content creation, seems to be his full-time job.

A fairy-tale romance turned full-time career

William first met his girlfriend, Celine Chan, back in college when the latter was still a budding photographer. And thus, in pursuit of love, William overcame one of his deepest fears.

“I used to be a person who hates cameras; I did not want to learn how to use the camera, and I did not want to be in front of the camera either,” he shares, chuckling at the irony of it now. “Whenever someone took a photo of me, it was always a ‘derp’ photo. Or I’d be doing crazy poses, so you could never get a good photo of me. That was all until I met my girlfriend. She was into photography and videography I wanted to get to know her more but there was always no time. I would be like, ‘Whatcha doing on the weekend?’ And she would be like, ‘Filming stuff.’ So I thought, you know what? The only way we would get closer is if we’re doing the same thing.”

William took his time learning it all through YouTube, and in the process fell in love with photography. Even during the pandemic, he filmed ads for various products, honing his editing skills while he was at it. Fast-forward five years later and not only have William and Celine achieved the Instagram ‘It Couple’ status, but William has attracted a huge following by filming himself — in front of the camera. 

“While I was doing product ads, my friends were like, ‘Can you show us how you did that?’” he elaborates. “So I just filmed myself doing it. And by filming myself, I got into this habit of filming myself doing different things. I sort of fell in love with that process. And I was like, ‘Okay, am I just interested in content creating, or am I going to commit to this?’ I quit my job. And in June of 2022, I committed to creating content every day, until now.”

“So, you’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with being in front of the camera,” I say.

“Well…” William pauses, caught. “Well, only because I get to control it. But whenever someone else films me, I still get awkward. Like today, I still get a little bit awkward.”

Typical modesty, I can’t help thinking, because William moves very seamlessly on the set of our Z List shoot. The awkwardness he speaks of still carries that boyish, quirky charm of an Internet Boyfriend. But in between takes, William shifts back into ‘content creator mode’ and engages in conversation with our pair of videographers for the shoot, JJ and Stanley, to learn about the best camera settings against our current indoor backdrop.

A brand-new perspective

William’s passion for learning has been deeply ingrained in him for as long as he can remember, he likens it to gut instinct. At 12 years old, he was sent to a Buddhist high school in Ukiah, California, where he was left to fend for himself — which also explains the trace of an American accent when he speaks English, and his clumsy attempts at doing Malay language-speaking videos.

“It was a weird place, I could show you the pictures and you’d be like, ‘What the heck?’” William says. “And it’s located in the mountains. You could say that it’s in the mountains ‘cause there are peacocks there, deers and squirrels. My family just dropped me off there and left. They were like, ‘Okay, you want to go to study in the US?’ And me being 12 years old, I was like, ‘Yeah, sure, High School Musical.’ At least that’s what I thought. Then when I went there it was, like, the girls were separated. It was all vegetarian.”

William would go on to spend the rest of his teenage years in Ukiah, returning home only every summer and winter break. And when he wasn’t studying, or doing meditation and recitations in the school’s Buddha Hall, he was always learning new skills.

“Cutting people’s hair was something I learned back when I was in high school,” William opens up. When you visit his Instagram profile, you’ll see that beyond his photography and cooking, he’s also a whiz at haircuts and latte art. “It was because no one was giving haircuts. It was very expensive, especially for students like me. So, I learned. I didn’t have YouTube back then, so I would just go to school and look for someone with, like, Justin Bieber’s haircut for example. I’d look at the picture and analyse it, and then give it a try. Since then, I would cut the hair of maybe seven friends every week. And I would switch — we had about 30 people in the dorm. That’s how I learned. Even with cooking, I learned when I was there. I had to help my teacher cook, I was the only one and he taught me how to cook.”

Ultimately, William’s goal with his “I Can Learn” tagline in his Instagram bio is to show that learning is an ongoing, constant process — for anyone. “Learning it all took a lot of years, it’s not like all in one year, and so I wanted people to realise that it’s not like you can learn something right away,” he affirms. “Like last year in 2023, I posted about learning latte art. I went through a journey of posting it on my IG Story every day to show the process; so, day one of learning latte art, day two and so on. I kept doing that because I wanted people to watch me learn something too. I’m showing them these skills are something I’ve learned before, but I wanna show them me learning it as well. And I hope they can all learn together, with me.”

Even photography, which William learned much later to get closer to his now-girlfriend, gave him a new perspective on life. “I think it made me realise that the world is actually a much prettier and more beautiful place,” he says. (He has since honed his skills, and gained recognition for it.) “Having the ability and skill now, and the desire to capture an image or a scene, it made me realise that with even the tiniest thing, I could visualise it in a way that I don’t think a lot of people can see. It really impacted the way I view things in general.”

A step in the right direction

The gravity of surpassing a million followers is certainly not lost on William. Over the years of accumulating his audience, sharing his knowledge and experience with them, and perfecting the Internet Boyfriend persona, he has now achieved Instagram fame. And with that, of course, we muse on the pros and cons.

“The cons are something that I think I shouldn’t even think about,” William says. “Because let’s say, I can’t go out dating with my girlfriend ‘normally’ because we’d be recognised. We go to Bukit Bintang and someone will come and ask us for a picture, or we’re eating and someone notices us taking pictures, so we can’t act ‘naturally’. But that’s just what is given. The pros definitely outweigh the cons, because the amount of benefits you get and the people you’re able to inspire is really important. And I think for me, being able to quit my job and do this successfully, to make my passion a living, is already a dream. So I have to cherish that dream and be grateful.”

When all is said and done, it comes down to becoming an inspiration for others — whether it’s through the gift of learning or otherwise. William shares that while he was the first among his friend group to dive into content creating, his own brother has also begun sharing the things he loves online. “I’m glad that I’m able to have an influence on my brother to start sharing what he likes, and that content creating has helped them in their lives as well,” William says proudly. “And my brother got to 800k within a year. It feels like I’m able to go through all those ‘wrong’ paths to show him the right path. And I’m glad that he was able to take that path, to inspire other people as well. That’s why I really enjoy seeing how people use platforms to create good content, to inspire good people.”

Quitting his job and committing to content creation full-time gave William the much-needed breathing room he’d sought for. He was previously an assistant director for commercials, but after only three months he’d quickly decided that it was not the path for him (“the ideas were under restriction of my clients because they were the ones paying me the money, so I had to do what they wanted”). As soon as he quit, he got the creative freedom he’d desired — but the perfectionist in him remained, in perhaps the best way.

“I think my biggest strength is my high standards,” he says, after mulling it over for a moment. “Because if I wanna do a video randomly [or whatever], anything could affect the view. And I would take into consideration every single tiny thing that could improve a video. The placing of the phone, for example, or the subtitles and the timing, everything. And because I have high standards with that, I did a lot of trial and error. And I learned a lot through that — that maybe at the end of the day, none of it might matter. But if I didn’t have high standards for myself, I wouldn’t have realised that. So I think it’s really important to have high standards so you set the bar high, and you try to hit high. Only then your goals will be high, and you’ll achieve better.”

interview PUTERI YASMIN SURAYA | editor-in-chief & creative direction MARTIN TEO | assisted by RONN TAN & MALLIE MARAN | stylist ISAAC CHONG | stylist assistant ZHI YEE | photography EDMUND LEE (ONE3FOUR STUDIO) | videography POR JIA JUN | makeup SHIYO JOO | hair CODY CHUA | styled in HERMÈS, BURBERRY, DIOR, LOUIS VUITTON

In its fourth year, The Z List 2024 continues to celebrate the inspirational and aspirational, as well as the most dynamic youths who find strength in empowering their communities through the work that they do. Working together, the Gen-Zers come in full force to make an impact strength on strength.