Growing up Young Star

I grew up writing about growing up. I was 11 years old when I started writing for Young Star. I was a prepubescent girl with baby fat and a mad passion for writing, and I couldn’t believe that I was about to start writing for a major daily along with other great and energetic writers — Erwin Romulo, Luis Carlo San Juan, Anna Angara, Ginggay Joven, Alessa Libongco, Mai Mai and China Cojuangco, among others. It was 1996. The Spice Girls were cool, Fidel Ramos was still president of the Philippines, and I didn’t even have my period yet.

 Since I was the youngest one, I was the one who stayed on the longest. I probably had the most number of picture changes beside my byline too, since my looks kept changing as I went through puberty. (When a fan cheerfully wrote that he enjoyed articles by the “cute and chubby Monique Buensalido,” I immediately asked to change my picture.) Looking back, I see what a big chunk of my life was dedicated to Young Star. I spent many late nights working on articles, attended press conferences and events (When I attended the Cathay Pacfic International Wilderness Experience in South Africa as a media representative, my fellow press members nicknamed me The Minor, since I was just 17), interviewed personalities like Lea Salonga and Ricky Martin. Heck, I wrote for Young Star for more than half my life. (God, I’m old.)

The original format of my column was a poll type — I asked fellow young people a question, transcribed their answer, collected their pictures and submitted it to the STAR. Eventually, our big boss and editor, Tita Millet Mananquil, let me write my own articles. I wish I could say I was a child genius and that my articles were Pulitzer Prize winners off the bat, but mostly I wrote about being a teenager. I wrote about how I wanted to go out and party more often, but I didn’t know how. I wrote about how I dealt with my parents when they freaked out over the concept of hair mascara. I complained about chivalry disappearing, dreamed about getting a summer job, pondered the labels we put on each other in high school. When I got a bit older, I wrote about separating work from your personal life, dealing with your mother when she suddenly wants you to start flirting more, and even about being cheap when you travel abroad. I saw every moment in my life as something to write about in Young Star. Once I even wrote about one epic mall gimmick I had with my friends, where we went to an indoor amusement park and shared one Starbucks Frappuccino between 11 friends. Ah, youth.

I realize now how embarrassing it was to brandish my naiveté (and underdeveloped syntax) on a national broadsheet. Today, I have a draft of an article tacked up on my bulletin board at home, a reminder that once upon a time, I thought I knew everything — and wrote about it. However, I always got feedback on how much people my age enjoyed reading about my adventures and misadventures because they were going through the same things. Even now, people add me on Facebook, saying how much they could relate to my articles. I guess we all thought we knew everything yet secretly relished having a million questions in our young minds. I will always be grateful for the chance to be part of Young Star.

As I stayed on, the writers kept changing (and getting younger), until I realized I’m really Not-So-Young-Star anymore. As I wrote about work, other columnists wrote about prom. But I know that today’s Young Star crew is the perfect set of people to deal with the questions that the younger people have today. Being in your mid-20’s spurs a lot of new questions and crises in life (anyone else part of the Quarter-Life Crisis Club?), and perhaps this time, I can discuss it with my friends, and star in our very own How I Met Your Mother episode.

I guess we all have to grow up someday.