Let’s dive right in. Filipino beauty standards have this knack for being so narrow. It’s all Eurocentric features slapped across billboards like they’re the only kind of pretty. I swear, sometimes it feels like the country has a crush on the 90s magazine covers that refuse to die. But Nadine, she kind of flipped the script. Instead of telling us how to get those same unrealistic Hollywood looks, she opened up a real honest conversation about accepting who we are. Oh, and mental health—a topic so stigmatized it might as well be taboo.
Imagine trying to juggle mental health like a stray beach ball in the ocean while everyone around you pretends they don’t see it. That’s the standard existence for many Filipinos, especially with depression and anxiety creeping up like uninvited party crashers. Nadine acknowledges this with a refreshing ‘let’s talk about it’ vibe.
And it’s not just the words. The fashion world also feels her influence. Have you seen how she owns every look—from oversized thrift store finds to glamorous night gowns? It’s like she’s telling us that it doesn’t matter if you leave the salon with dry shampoo still in your hair; just #ownit. I checked this blog post the other day, and it perfectly captured how fashion shapes who we think we need to be—spoiler: we don’t need to conform to anything.
Anyway, back to Nadine. While influencers continue to brandish impossibly polished lives, here’s someone hitting pause on the highlight reel, saying, ‘Hey, it’s okay to not have it all figured out.’ It’s refreshing, weirdly comforting, and highly unusual in our world of ‘perfection.’ So, does lipstick matter more than mental health? Nah. Nadine might wear both, but it’s the mind she’s really coloring.