Embracing Change

Before she became her generation's young superstar--and before she came to possess everything that title entailed--Judy Ann wanted to be like other girls. She would look with envy at their accessories, piles of designer clothes, branded shoes and bags, and jewelry, and hope that one day, she might have those things too. But as a struggling young actress, she couldn't afford them. "Feeling ko walang chance na magkaroon [ako] ng ganoon karaming accessories. Yun yung pangarap ko talaga, na sana one day, mamroblema naman ako kung ano'ng isusuot ko kasi ang daming nakalatag sa harapan ko, hindi ko alam kung ano'ng uunahin ko."

Now, she is referred to as a fashion icon. The formerly overweight eight-year-old who could only dream of having her own accessories and expensive designer brands is now a regular fixture on the cover of countless glossy fashion magazines, photographed by the country's premiere lensmen. How did she go from that to this?

The long road to developing her personal style began during the Mara Clara days, when people would give her jewelry, but for an entirely different reason. "Nagkaroon ako ng chance makapag-ipon ng alahas 'nung Mara Clara days. Kasi si Kuya Eruel (Tongco, her co-star), tuwing may eksenang sasabunutan niya ako, o sasampalin ako, ang bayad noon sa akin, hikaw, o bracelet, o kuwintas. 'Yun ang reward niya sa kanya. Dumadating na sa point na sasabihin niya kay Direk Emil Cruz, 'Huwag ka na maglagay ng eksenang may sampalan!' "she laughs.

But at that point, Judy Ann still had a long way to go. The most important component of developing a personal style, the final piece of the fashion puzzle, was still missing. She had no confidence, and that was something money couldn't buy. It wasn't something people could give her. For that, she would have to reach into herself. Her early experiments with fashion--like when she showed up at an ABS-CBN party wearing blue velvet leggings with a blue and red polo--left her scared about exercising her power of choice when it came to what to wear. She was reluctant to appear on magazine covers because she didn't want to be laughed at. "Duwag lang talaga ako," Judai says of how she felt about getting a make-over. "Hindi lang talaga ako confident kung ano ang kalalabasan, kasi baka pangit."

Losing weight was a huge confidence booster. Then good friends from the industry--makeup artists, fashion designers, stylists and photographers--helped her with the rest, offering words of encouragement that helped her form a better sense of who she was visually. "People na nakilala ko, who made me feel confident kung sino man ako, I was able to reinvent myself because of these people," she says. "Kumbaga, wala namang mawawala at mas may mawawala kapag hindi ko ginawa."

She recalls when she first appeared on the cover of a magazine. "Everybody was raving about it. 'Dun na-boost ng 200 percent 'yung confidence ko," Judai beams. " Nagdire-diretso na 'ko. And I realized that you have to give reinvention a try."

Now, she's no longer tentative, scared, unsure when it comes to fashion. Her sense of frugality will stop her from blowing upwards of P50,000 on a Louis Vuitton bag (whenever she buys jewelry, if it costs more than P50,000, "pinag-iisipan ko muna"; her biggest splurge was an eternity ring that she bought a year and a half ago at a jewelry store at Shangri-La, but only after the owner agreed to give her a "sobrang discounted price), but now, fashion is no longer the problem. Judy Ann now dreams of bigger and better things, and occasionally, more expensive ones too. "Tumitingin pa rin ako sa price tags, pero minsan, sinasabi ko sa sarili ko, 'Deserve ko naman ito.' Tapos hindi na ako bibili for a while. Quota na ako."

Taken from Starstudio magazine: Judy Ann Santos special issue