INFLUENCE IN THE DIGITAL ERA

Digital media multi-hyphenate KC CONCEPCION talks about what it takes to be a responsible role model

“I’m busy doing familiar things but also new things I’ve never done but always wanted to do,” says KC Concepcion. After a decade in the industry, the decision to branch out onto other interests has been refreshing for her, because it allows her to dive into interests previously unexplored.

“I’ve been focusing on digital work nowadays,” says KC, “I’m launching a YouTube channel called KCTV next week and I’m finally back where I first began.”

The actress, who first shot to fame with her work on television, also began as a blogger and she sees this second round as a culmination of everything she has learned in her long career. “I started naman as a host talaga, that was also the reason I wanted to do it, to be able to share the things I love, what I do,” she says. “It’s living my life on my own terms and that’s what I love about it.”

Apart from preparing for the launch, she has a couple of endorsements coming her way, the biggest of which right now is Shiseido. “Getting Shiseido was a milestone,” says KC. “It’s really a global brand and

I’m able to represent what a Filipina can also be, with a global brand.” Last year, she started Avec Moi by Kristina, a seasonal, private orders-based jewelry line. “I’m still studying gemology,” she shares. “I want to make sure that I get the diploma before I get into the diamonds, the big guns.”

“There are so many things I would love to try.

Movies are definitely something I would love to be doing,” she says. There is no sense that KC finds any of her old show-biz work, for lack of a better term, baduy and she credits her sense of work ethic to a career spent under camera lights and long shooting nights.

“The training I got from ABS-CBN, when you’re doing teleseryes and movies, set me up for the obsession of getting things done perfectly in a short amount of time,” she says. “I learned a lot from how you can maximize the effect you have on people and that’s kind of cool. I kept the discipline I learned on TV.”

It is easy to forget that KC has been in the public eye ever since she was born. This led to some interesting growing pains, where she had to navigate an increasingly complicated world in front of everyone. “I had to grow up and figure out what the heck was going on and why things were the way they were, why people knew everything about me, even if I didn’t tell anyone,” she says. “There’s so much I had to figure out while growing up and I was just thrust into everything. I’ve spent so much time in front of the public eye and people judge you so much, and that’s why I developed a tendency to guard myself.”

Because she is dipping her toes in the digital world where people favor seeing reality as much as possible, KC says that she has had to change those habits. “I guess I’m learning now that I’m able to learn how to share at my own pace, parang it’s easier for me to trust that people will understand and relate to my content and whatever I share,” she says. KC relishes the chance to show people how she really is, the good days and the bad days and everything that comes with being a person in her position. “I think it’s important for people to see me as someone who goes through things they might also go through, things like body image, body shaming, things you’re judged for that even if you’re not in the public eye that anyone can experience,” she says. “Being relatable I think is one thing I’m learning to appreciate. I hope girls can relate to what I've gone through and experienced. Maybe they’ll be able to learn from things I’ve learned about, and listen to advice I can give about sensitive topics that I never would’ve been able to talk about on a talk show.”

KC hopes this peek at her private life will also change the preconceived notions about her and her private life. “People gossip a lot, and sometimes they really believe it happened. I know people think there’s no smoke without fire in showbiz, or even politics, but that’s not really true,” she says. “People will invent things and if you don’t defend yourself enough, then parang it’s a fact even when it isn’t true.” KC believes it is an unnecessary way to live life. “You live life to live life and be good to the people around you, but if you have to be on the defense all the time, it’s not the life I want to live,” she says.

When asked what the biggest milestone in her career was, KC mentioned the teleseryes, the endorsements, her jewelry brand, going back to digital and being a UN World Food Program Ambassador. Being recognized for her career and her passions has always been the most important for her, despite what naysayers might believe. “When people started talking about my work and not my love life, I was like in heaven. I was so happy. I felt like they recognized my work, and not just everything else that might make noise, that has nothing to do naman with what I’m doing,” she says, knowingly.

A meaningful life, says KC, is one where you do not live just for yourself. “To be able to propel other people forward, if you’re able to help make their dreams come true, that to me is meaningful,” she says. “I always want to affect people and leave them better. The same way that there are people in my life that leaves me a better person after.”