A Filipino beauty queen's guide to making it in America: R29xToyota ad
’s career path was supposed to be straightforward: At 20 years old, she'd go into the medical field like her grandmother, mother, and aunt before her. But while studying pharmacy in her native Philippines, her classmates entered her into a school pageant, and in no time at all, she was winning national competitions.
"My first struggle when I moved here was with modeling. Yes, they liked my beauty, but in general, if [brands] get Asian representation, it's usually [someone who is] Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Some [models] have darker skin tones, but I feel like [brands] got used to Asians with lighter skin tones. So a lot of the Pacific Islanders, the Asians down in the islands who have darker skin tones, are still not globally known or widely used [in campaigns].
You’ve been the Philippines’ representative to international pageants. Do you feel pressure to represent that culture in your day-to-day life now that you live in the U.S.? As a model and actress, you're constantly subjected to other people's approval. In spite of that, how do you stay true to who you are?, but eventually, you start to know yourself more and who you are. That made it easier for me to [realize],I would just have to improve based on that [personal image of] me and not on what other people want me to be. I've learned that through the years, and even now I'm still trying to learn.
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