Kisses on being beautiful
As soon as the ECQ (Extended Community Quarantine) in Metro Manila was eased several weeks ago, Kisses Delavin and her parents, Carrie and Gilbert Delavin, drove home to their native Masbate and stayed there since then.
Although she has topped the recent 2020 Starmometer online poll on “The most beautiful woman in the Philippines,” for the second time (the first was in 2018; Angel Locsin was No. 1 seven times), Kisses isn’t just sitting pretty nor being simply a sleeping beauty while off from work as contract artist of All Access to Artists, Inc. (Triple A) management and APT Entertainment. When a powerful earthquake last August hit Cataingan, a town several kilometers from Masbate City, Kisses went there not just to sympathize with the residents but to distribute ayuda. In their own way, the Delavins have been contributing relief goods among the needy in the city. You call it (as beauty contests are wont to do) “beauty with a purpose.”
“I didn’t expect to receive such an honor again,” Kisses said about the “most beautiful poll” that has been conducted for 15 years now. “and I thank my Kissables (her fans) for their continued support. I feel kilig. This award feels like when it’s so early in the morning and you just showered and have no makeup on yet and you’re told by someone you appreciate, eye to eye, that you’re beautiful. It’s like romcom kilig. You say thank you and smile nonchalantly, of course.”
She added, “But really, when a love this big is given to you by people from around the world, from different walks of life, it moves you. It feels as if it’s absolutely impossible to ever be sad or insecure. And it makes you wish you could instantly share that empowering love to every girl and boy in the world because each of them deserves to feel beautiful, too. That’s how it feels.”
An only child born after her mom suffered seven miscarriages and who was intubated at five years old due to viral encephalitis at the ICU of Lourdes Hospital, Kisses believes that beauty goes deeper than skin-deep. “While beauty is already within everyone of us, an important element for beauty to flourish more is a wonderful thing called self-worth. To know your worth and to be reminded of it each day, that is something your future self will thank you for. As Coco Chanel said, ‘Keep your head, heels and standards high!’
“I think that in this time, when I think of a beautiful person, I think of a person who reaches out and finds beauty in others, especially now that most people are so hard on themselves because of society’s pressures. Imagine how less lonely this world would be if we practiced telling people what we find most beautiful about them and do that on a regular basis. There are people that we pass by, hang around with, message online, and people we consider the closest in our lives who may not have a clue what makes them beautiful or have already forgotten what it felt like and we can fix that.”
She remembers that when she was three years old at preparatory school, there was a contest.
“My parents told me that I went home triumphantly waving a P500 bill and a certificate in my hands that said ‘Most Beautiful Smile.’ I haven’t stopped showing off my smile since then.”
Every success, no matter how small, is celebrated by the family.
“I would come home from school and group work with random good news, and my dad and I would celebrate it over two-piece fried chicken and Coke float meals, my go-to recharge meal at the only open fastfood joint at one a.m., and I’d tell him all about it with my mom on the phone and they’d tell me how proud they were. Quarantining in Masbate gave me time to appreciate where I am, how incredibly supportive my family and supporters are for me and my career, and just how generous God is to me.”
Her Kissables are patiently waiting for Kisses to resume work. “They have grown into one of the strongest, most positive and loving groups of people and individuals you could find. I’m so excited to get back to working hard after the pandemic, now with more focus than ever, making exciting movies and TV series to repay my supporters for all their hard work and love.”
(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)
- Latest
- Trending
