Q&A: Bianca Gonzalez, Digital Trailblazer

Krista Garcia

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Bianca Gonzalez is one of eight panelists for the Rappler Do More Awards.

SEIZE THE DAY. Bianca believes that we should use our given skills and talents to the hilt. Graphic by Mara Mercado

MANILA, Philippines – If you go online at least once a day, it’s hard to miss the presence of Bianca Gonzalez.

 

More than 2.6 M people follow her 140-character missives on technology, the government, youth issues, and even her day-to-day fitness routine.

 

Her digital voice commands such a positive response that many brands tap her to tell people about their narratives.

 

WATCH: Bianca Gonzalez: Be the Twitter user you want to follow

 

It’s hard not to resort to using hyphens when describing what Bianca does. She’s truly one of the most palpable multi-taskers of this generation: a TV Host-Model-Editor-Columnist-Philanthropist-Influencer.

 

But Bianca sums up her many hats in one word: “Storyteller.”

 

Her rise to fame is an oft-recounted story: as a teenager, a caster approached her to do a screen test for a shampoo commercial. In her junior year of college, she also started working in ABS-CBN’s production as a brain stormer for the Creative Development Group. She was enticed to start an acting career, but she never had the heart for it.

 

“Why not host?” they told her. She said she was willing to try. The experiment gradually became Bianca’s full-time career.

 

She was one of the first TV personalities to harness the power of the internet. Even before she took to Twitter, she started a blog in 2003.

 

Still, Bianca has no Facebook page, except for an official fan page. Online, she chooses to put the focus on her thoughts, role models, and everyday inspirations, rather than her personal life.

 

She explains that writing online was initially a way to reach out to her audience. “On TV, every year and every month, there’s always someone new,” she explains. “I don’t act or sing – I only host. For niche job like mine, it’s so hard to stay relevant.”

 

Eventually, she realized that her virtual statements could somehow affect the way people act in society.

 

“With social media, people are becoming more vocal – pero iba naman yung online lang, iba yung may real-life action (there’s a difference when it’s just online, and when there’s real-life action).”

 

“I want to see change towards the culture of apathy,” She adds. “We have ‘EDSA fatigue,’ yung pagod na pagod na mag-rally (or how we’ve grown weary of rallies).” She hopes that by asking the right questions, people would stop turning a blind eye to what’s happening around them.

 

Here are some questions we asked Bianca:

 

What do you love most about your job right now?

Every day is really different. I work on TV, that’s really my main job, my bread and butter, but I also am an editor for MEG magazine and I write for the Philippine Star. In between, I have different advocacy-related work also. And though it’s hard to keep, what I find best about it is that it’s never boring. You know how when you have a routine job, you tend to be complacent, or masanay (get used to it). But with a job profile like mine – you always have to be on your toes.

 

What do you like doing in your free time?

I like to sleep – number one talaga yun. Next to that if I have a free few days off, travel talaga. I collect tumbling shots in my trips.

 

What does it mean for you to Do More?

When they told me about the campaign, sobra akong natuwa (I was really ecstatic), because now brands are becoming less about the gloss and more about the message.

 

The Do More philosophy for me is two things. One, we’re all different, every person is different: and in that difference, we were all given different talents, different [levels of] expertise, and different interests.

 

Two, parang sayang yung buhay mo (your life would be wasted) if you don’t use those talents to their maximum potential. If you’re given the time, the contacts and connections, or the energy and the health to do all these things and you don’t – you just spend it coasting along – is that the kind of life you want to live? So for me that’s the Do More philosophy – binigay sayo eh (it was given to you). Seize the opportunity. – Rappler.com

 

The DO MORE Awards is Rappler’s first opportunity to commend Filipino achievers who have the courage to challenge the status quo. It aims to honor those who take the initiative to go beyond the call of duty. What they do inspires others around them. Do you know a Digital Trailblazer like Bianca Gonzalez? Nominate them for the Rappler Do More awards until October 5! 

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