Angel of the Small Screen

Many couch potatoes would recognize her as one of the beautiful young stars of ABS-CBN’s soap Recuerdo de Amor and K2BU. At first glance, she’s a tall morena whose build and figure belie the fact that she is only 15 years old. It is when Angeline Aguilar starts talking that one realizes s/he is in the presence of a true-blue teenager.

Angeline seems to be just beginning to get used to fame as she was initially shy during the interview. It doesn’t take long for her to warm up and be the bubbly girl that she is. Once she starts giggling it was hard to make her stop. When asked to describe herself, she says "I’m sweet talaga. I’m a very good friend. Tapos, minsan makulit ako at saka bungisngis."

We talk behind a curtain, at a hidden corner of a dressing room. "Dito na lang tayo. Nahihiya ako eh," she says with a smile. (Can we just stay here? I’m shy.)

She may look like a typical teenager to you but Angeline leads an unconventional life. She goes to school at the study program that the network has for its stable of young talents.

"Sa school ko tinutulungan nila akong mag-adjust ng schedules. Okay naman, nakakahabol naman ako," she narrates. (They help me adjust my schedules.)

With tapings, guest appearances and pictorials to fill her schedule, she usually stays at home and watches home movies during her free time. The self-confessed Mandy Moore fanatic lists down Sweet November, Serendipity and, of course, A Walk to Remember as her favorite movies.

This budding star also idolizes piano playing ingenue Vanessa Carlton and listens to Luther Vandross (!), Nelly and The Calling in her pink CD player covered with cute stickers. When this writer tells her that she resembles Carlton, she reels. "Thank you, ate! I love you, talaga!" she gushes in between giggles.

She also counts local heartthrob Aga Muhlach and the beautiful Claudine Barretto as her idols.

"I met (Claudine) before in Home Along (da Riles). Mabait kasi sya. Si Tito Aga (idol ko) kasi sobrang galing niya at saka mabait din siya." (Aga is very nice and he’s a great actor, too.)

Angeline swears she’s always wanted to be an actress and doesn’t mind the long trips to the studio from her home in Los Baños, Laguna.

"Before pa, gustong gusto ko na talaga ‘to, na maging actress." (I’ve always wanted to be an actress.)

Angeline says she’s the same person despite her celebrity. Her long-time friends are in awe of what she does and the world she has chosen to navigate but she says they treat her the same way they did when she wasn’t in show business.

"Yung iba bihira ko nang makita pero meron pa rin akong nakikita (sa kanila). Yung mga friends ko before pa, sobrang ‘Uy, ang galing-galing mo!’ Lahat tinatanong nila sa akin," she shares. "Sinasabi ko, teka muna. I want to spend time with you ‘di ba? Ayun, they treat me the same pa rin."

It looks as though the teener is so busy being a performer that she really hasn’t made up her mind on what to take up in college.

"Gusto ko HRM at saka Theater Arts. Either designing or medicine," she says. When we tell her that she still has to make up her mind, she breaks into giggles again. "Gusto ko nga dalawa(ng courses) e." (I want to take up both.)

She has plenty of time to figure it out, we tell her.

With all the blessings that come her way and the acting chops she possesses, I’m sure this Vanessa Carlton look-alike will conquer tinseltown in no time.