These Filipino Women Reflect on What It Means to Be in the Spotlight

For this year’s International Women’s Month, Vogue Philippines invites leading and rising Filipina women to share their stories. In entertainment, these three Filipino women are sharing their stories on craft, identity, and community.

In the entertainment industry, standing in the spotlight has a different effect on everyone. For these three Filipinas, however, they thrive in shared experiences: responsibility, representation, and claiming space. From exploring womanhood to navigating what it means to be in the public eye, these are the Filipina women whose names resonate across various media in entertainment.

Saab Magalona-Bacarro

Starting content creation in high school, Saab Magalona-Bacarro remembers posting her journal entries and connecting with people 25 years ago. When describing the girl she was then, she laughs and says she doesn’t want to be mean, but “she had a lot of growing up to do.” She wanted to be different from other girls because of societal norms, but she eventually realized how wonderful it is to be surrounded by amazing women.

Continuing the path she started as a young girl, Magalona-Bacarro acknowledges that social media can be very draining. “I always think there is no guilt in not being there for your followers [and] I also know the importance of being there for my kids, family, and myself.”

For Magalona-Bacarro, inspiring women, especially the young ones, is important because it encourages them to be proud of who they are and shows that being a woman is actually super cool. Now in motherhood, raising boys, she shares, “I want to save them from what society thinks a man is and I want them to be in touch with their emotions. I want them to be respectful and value women.”

Marina Summers 

As a drag queen, Marina Summers shares that she usually feels beautiful with corset and wig. But today, she still feels beautiful without them because of her newfound confidence as a transwoman. “I’m still the same person from before apart from my appearance. But I’m more comfortable, confident, and at peace with myself, body, thoughts, and emotions,” she shares. Initially keeping the first part of her transition private, she eventually felt amazing when she shared it with the trans community and received messages about how her story inspired people.

Talking about confidence, Marina says that her strength wasn’t handed to her. She has faced many challenges, but being surrounded by powerful and inspiring women, especially her mom, whom she considers the most important person in her life, has inspired and empowered her to pursue her craft and fully be herself, particularly during her time on Drag Race Philippines.

For Marina, women shouldn’t shrink themselves to the patriarchal society’s narrow idea of who they should be. Overcoming challenges for her means building their own tables instead of begging for seats at theirs. “It means I can walk into a room and just be myself and with that, I get to express myself more and thrive in everything that I do.”

Xtina Superstar

Doing the craft she loves for years, Xtina Superstar says she doesn’t take work too seriously. A DJ, party producer, and co-founder of Church Loves You, a collective rooted in Christian faith that offers acceptance and spiritual family to individuals, she shares that it wasn’t very progressive back then, so they had to empower queer and trans people. “I’ve experienced so much discrimination and hardship as a trans woman years ago, it wasn’t as accepted as it is now,” she adds. “That’s why we also started that collective because we wanted to make a change and back ourselves more. We want [a] representation for trans women and queer [people].”

Through the challenges she faced, Xtina feels that visibility is a key part of her experiences. “I feel like overcoming that is making sure that there’s always visibility for women in every space that we have now,” she says. For young girls and queer people who are still scared to use their voices, Xtina reassures them that feeling scared is normal. “But the thing is, if you don’t speak up for yourself, we wouldn’t progress into the situation that we have now, compared to 10 years ago. So it’s very important to speak up, it’s very pivotal for us to progress as a nation [and] as a society.” After almost two decades in her, flourishing for Xtina is simply about being herself and seeing people enjoy her music. 

By HYACINTH ARANDA. Photographs by SHAIRA LUNA. Digital Associate Editor: CHELSEA SARABIA. Produced by JULIAN RODRIGUEZ. Videographer and Video Editor: Lynyrd Matias. Photographer’s Assistants: Emil Lansangan and Karlo Baylon. Videographer’s Assistant and 2nd Camera: Emmanuel Santos. Multimedia artist: Bea Lu. Content Writers: Daphne Sagun, Lawrence Alba, and Hyacinth Aranda. Special thanks to Single Origin.