This island girl wants to see the world

On Bantayan Island in Cebu, one of the places she calls home, Shuvee Etrata used to live in a modest house by the beach. And whenever she felt like clearing her head, she would go for a walk along the shore and feel the breeze brush her cheeks. With eight siblings under one roof, quiet wasn’t always a given.

Alone with her thoughts, she would set her sights on the ocean—her way of meditation. And in the vastness of the waters before her, she couldn’t help but feel small. “I know deep in my heart, I’m just a tiny particle in this world,” Etrata says.

Still, she always knew that there was more to life than the one she had known—that if she tried hard enough and was good enough, she would find that beyond what the eyes could see awaited “better opportunities, greater things to achieve, and new places to see.”

“Alam kong malaki ang mundo kaya malaki rin ang mga pangarap ko,” she says. “I have always been a dreamer.”

What was once “out of reach”

In late August—three months after exiting “Pinoy Big Brother (PBB): Celebrity Collab Edition” and more than 3,000 kilometers away from sleepy Bantayan Island—Etrata landed in sleepless Tokyo, Japan.

As a young girl, she had heard nothing but good things about the country, its culture, and its people. It’s the closest and the least expensive place, she assumed, where she could experience snow. (Alas, it was the tail end of summer.) But mostly, it was about the food. And “oh my gosh,” the food! “Ramen was a must. But the wagyu, the Kobe beef… wow!” she says. “They make me want to go back.”

Heck, even just wandering the city streets makes her want to go back. “Ang linis!”

At Edo Wonderland in Nikko, a few hours north of Tokyo, she dressed up in a pink kimono and posed for photos amid the amusement park’s old-world charm. “I felt like a princess,” says the actress, who went with “PBB” housemates Ralph de Leon and Will Ashley, as part of a brand-sponsored “workation.” “It really touched my heart.”

It wasn’t her first time out of the Philippines—she had gone to Singapore in 2023—but it was her first overseas work trip. Had her unexpected and momentous breakthrough on “PBB” not happened, it would probably have taken her “a long, long time” to save enough money to fly to Japan.

The fact that she fulfilled what she once thought was “out of reach”—and so soon, for an endorsement, no less—finally sank in. “Naiiyak ako. Sa plane pa lang naiyak na ’ko,” she says. “It’s not just about me being in Japan; it’s about making it and living my dreams, with all the blessings coming my way.”

“Meron ba kayong feeling na ganon, ’yong parang you’re just looking forward to something before, tapos naabot mo siya without you realizing it? ‘Yong biglang it’s there and you don’t know what to feel?” she muses. “Grabe pala talaga ang nagawa ng ‘PBB’ sa buhay ko.”

Mustering courage

Etrata isn’t much for shopping. She didn’t have anything to shop with to begin with, she quips. But this time, she did—and then some.

Summoning all her nerves, she entered a Dior boutique to buy back a pair of shoes that she had borrowed—and damaged—from Ashley Ortega, her housemate both in “PBB” and in real life. She wasn’t quite sure if her best friend would accept it; Ortega had already assured her it was no big deal.

But a promise is a promise, Etratra insisted—and a quick look at her bank account told her that she could keep it. “Ay, kaya ko na pala,” says the 24-year-old actress.

Mindful of the increasing number of projects, engagements, and events she had to attend back home, she also invested in clothes. And while she packed her bags for her return to Manila, she stuffed them with chocolates and goodies she had bought from—what’s that place called again?— “Dongke…Donki—Don Quijote!”

“Meron na ‘kong budget!” she says.

“It’s giving fasyown”

On a gloomy September morning, just a few days after her Japan trip—and her subsequent Thailand work excursion—Etrata arrives for her Scout shoot at Yes Please in BGC, sunglasses on and wrapped in a blanket. For most on the set, it’s the first order of the day; Etrata is already on her second.

Coming from a 6 a.m. appointment, she still seems a little sleepy, her words tumbling out in soft mumbles. But all the same, through the morning haze, her humor still manages to peek through. “Asan ang drinks?” she chuckles as she grabs a bottle from the bar and pretends to take a swig.

She settles into the makeup chair, kicks back, and puts on a facemask. On her busiest days—she averages three events lately—this is probably the closest thing to rest she would ever get. Then the music plays—Katseye’s “Gabriela,” Jennie’s “Like Jennie,” Rihanna’s “Breakin’ Dishes”—and she’s dancing in her seat anyway.

For her first layout, she wears an eclectic pink-and-yellow ensemble that combines puffy, oversized shapes with shimmery textures. Perched on the stool with her legs crossed, she meets the flurry of flashes head-on. She leans forward, resting her chin in her hand—but she commits a little too hard she nearly tips over. “It’s giving fasyown!” she says.

In front of the lens, Etrata instinctively toggles from sweet to sultry, dainty to smoldering. Clearly, she’s used to this. But, as it turns out, there’s one thing she can’t do—wink. “‘Di ko kaya,” she tells the photographer. “Parang napupuwing lang ako!”

Finding her angle

While the camera loves her from every angle, it becomes noticeable as the shoot goes on that she favors her left side. It’s something she has been doing since her beauty pageant days, she says. And surely, all those Miss Photogenic trophies she won must mean something.

“Alam kong ‘di ako ang pinakamagandang babae sa balat ng lupa, so kailangan ko talagang i-anggulo ‘to,” she quips. “Iba kasi tingin ko sa mukha ko at some angles—parang ‘di ako si Shuvee. Kaya nilalaban ko talaga kahit masakit sa leeg!”

When she says she’s not the most beautiful, it’s not entirely out of self-deprecation. In Polomolok, South Cotabato, where she also spent much of her formative years, she endured bullying for her morena skin tone. There, she says, people often equate beauty with fair complexion and pointed nose. “Eurocentric features…’yon ang maganda sa paningin,” she says.

But over the years—and with the rise of fellow morena actresses like Gabbi Garcia—Etrata eventually learned to love her own skin. And while she’s now seen as a representation of morena beauty in showbiz, especially among young people, she admits that the journey toward self-acceptance isn’t as straightforward as it seems.

Once in a while, she still catches herself wishing that her lips weren’t “two-toned.” She even considered having her nose done. But there’s no one-stop shop for embracing one’s flaws. Rather, she sees it as a series of breakthroughs that help her make peace with her insecurities.

“Until now, I’m in the process of loving myself,” she says. “It’s important to have people who will appreciate you for who you are.”

The mantra she sticks to

As such, she has grown more “sensitive and intentional” with what she posts online, particularly when it comes to beauty. There are young people who now look up to her, she observes, and that comes with “great responsibility.” “I’m just happy I can inspire women with the same features as mine to feel good about themselves,” she says.

“Gusto kong ipakita na maganda rin naman ako, ’yong katulad ko, regardless of what other people say,” she adds. “That in the eyes of God, you’re always beautiful.”

Another thing Etrata has realized is that self-doubt and confidence can coexist just fine. Yes, there are always little things she hopes she can change or erase with a snap of a finger—like that darn pimple that showed up today of all days. But that won’t stop her from rocking this shoot.

“I always try to carry myself with grace”—a mantra she sticks to wherever she goes, even in Japan, where she remained unfazed by the ubiquitous ads celebrating pale skin. “It’s not about how my face looks that day, or how extravagant the clothes I’m wearing—it’s about how I handle myself in front of people,” she points out.

And call her cheesy, she says, but she likes to believe that “God has given me the heart to shine my light on people.” Well, she’s definitely doing that with her form-fitting skirt that sparkles like a disco ball. Now on her second layout, she lounges atop the bar counter. “Like a mermaid,” we tell her. “Parang bangus!” she retorts with a laugh.

Honing her acting

Doing photo shoots has been the norm for Etrata since her stint on “PBB.” And there’s no denying that she already knows her away around cameras—at least when it comes to posing. Acting, she acknowledges, is a different challenge altogether.

While she was quite happy with how her “Magpakailanman” episode turned out, she knows that she has a lot to learn and experience about the craft. “The Master Cutter,” her upcoming primetime drama series, is particularly nerve-wracking for her, because it features big stars like Dingdong Dantes—someone she never knew she would have the chance to share the screen with.

“I’m not confident yet with my skills. I haven’t been in the industry that long,” says Etrata, who signed with Sparkle GMA Artist Center in 2023, after dabbling in modeling and online content creation. “Ang mapa-promise ko is that I’m doing the workshops. I’m working on bettering myself para kapag isinalang ako, okay na at hindi nakakahiya.”

Besides, she believes that with practice, nothing is impossible. “Everything can be worked on,” stresses Etrata, who’s also set to appear in the horror flick “Huwag Kang Titingin” and the Metro Manila Film Festival entry “Call Me Mother.”

Strike while the iron is hot

The thing about having almost nothing is that it compels you to keep track of everything—every job booked, every peso earned, and every bit of debt incurred from lending apps just to put food on the table. But then the endorsements and shows rolled in. For the first time in her life, she allowed herself to lose count.

“Nung una, sabi ko, ‘Wow, may isang endorsement!’ Wow may dalawa, tatlo… sampu—hanggang sa ‘di ko na mabilang,” she says.

All these things are blessings, make no mistake, but things can get pretty overwhelming at times. And that’s okay. She just doesn’t want to say the word “pagod” out loud, because just thinking about it, she can already hear her batch’s big winner, Mika Salamanca, saying: “‘Pangarap mo ‘to. Ginusto mo ‘to, ‘di ba?’” Etrata shares, laughing.

Indeed, she doesn’t want to take any of these for granted. “Lahat naman tayo napapagod, eh. Lahat tayo nag-wo-work,” she says. “Alam kong maraming trabaho at nakakapagod, pero I take it step by step, one day at a time. Tanggap lang ako nang tanggap ngayon.”

While this mindset might well have been born from scarcity, Etrata’s eagerness to strike while the iron is hot is also partly fueled by the sobering reality that fame and stardom can be fleeting and uncertain. Case in point: Barely four months after her “PBB” season ended, a new one is already underway.

And she knew full well what that implied, even back then. “May next collaboration na, may mga mga bagong housemates na,” says Etrata, who’s not so coy as to pretend that she’s not worried about not making the most out of her opportunities. “I’m really scared.”

Sustaining her name

So now comes the hard part: “sustaining my name in the industry.” “But I’m taking that as a challenge,” she says—and she must. She wants to prove herself as a serious actress. She’s building the homes she never had for her family. And there are still a lot of places she wants to see.

Because every time she feels her world expanding, it reminds her there’s an even bigger one out there.

She hopes to travel across Europe one day. She’s curious about Los Angeles, where her suitor, model Anthony Constantino, was born. She dreams of Switzerland, too, to see the room allotted to her by the generous Swiss couple who sponsored her college studies and for whom her mother used to work for. And perhaps, finally, to see snow.

But should life take a different turn, Etrata knows she will always have Bantayan Island. “As humans, we always go back to our core,” she says. “For me, that’s being an island girl. I always go back to that, because it brings me closer to nature and closer to God.”

Photos by JL Javier, assisted by Jam Mariñas

Creative direction by Ella Lambio

Styling by Edlene Cabral

Makeup by Thazzia Falek

Hair by Dale Mallari

Shot at Yes Please at The Palace