Meet one of 'Cebu's 12 Prettiest': Rachel Tan, Chinita charmer

With Asianovelas being the rage these days, chinita beauties are definitely in-and Rachel Tan is no exception.

At first glance, this young lady's oriental looks are a cross between local beauty-turned-Ford supermodel Verna Buckley and ex-resident of PBB teen-town Kim Chiu. Thus, a career in show business, which she's pretty much open to as well, should not be far behind.

For the meantime, however, the 20-year-old, 5'4 tall, senior nursing student at Cebu Doctor's University spends her spare time either doing commercial and ramp modeling stints (she's the image girl of the Mango Park Hotel) or staying at home, cooking and eating a lot with her family, her most prized possession!

Rachel is no stranger to beauty tilts. While maintaining honor student grades at University of Visayas in high school, she was also named Miss UV Intramurals. And just recently, from among 117 hopefuls, she emerged as one of this year's Cebu's 12 Prettiest, an elite circle of standout young ladies for their attractiveness and achievements. Discovered by the Maze's Jessie Latasa while malling, Rachel views the title with unmistakable awe, calling it her "happiest, most memorable and surprising moment."

Winning the title also earned her the ticket to be part of the 2006 Maze Image Model Search, wherein she landed second place and took home the 2006 Maze Charmer Girl award, which was given to the candidate who "got the most pretty and charming face." She was also named as this year's Miss Earthsavers, making her the official covergirl of Peacetime, the official publication of the cause-oriented Earthsavers organization. The title proves to be appropriate as Rachel shares that she always has a soft spot for the "underprivileged sector of the society" and looks forward to bigger opportunities to get involved in philanthropic work in the future.

Her bag of interests goes beyond pageants and modeling. With a music list that reads Soul, RnB, Alternative and Hip-hop, Rachel's so into singing and dancing, for which she's also taking formal lessons. Actually, it was her hula dancing that left the most lasting impression on the judges during the Cebu's 12 Prettiest competition.

This young lady with a contagious laugh has a "girly-girly" approach to fashion-lacy skirts and tops plus all that jazz.

Rachel admits a penchant for South Korean romantic-comedy flicks like My Sassy Girl and Windstruck, tales that actually revolve around young women who are strong-minded when it comes to getting what they want in life. No wonder really is she finds it easy to connect with these female characters, as Rachel, who unabashedly expressed her hopes of becoming a successful nurse or commercial model someday, seems to have that inner will of steel to take on anything that she truly desires. NMT