Nadine Lustre poses with her 2019 Best Actress FAMAS award.
Nadine Lustre via Instagram, file

MANILA, Philippines — Actress, singer and now vlogger Nadine Lustre took a retrospective approach upon releasing her first-ever vlog, aptly titled “My Name is Nadine.”

After teasing the creation of her YouTube channel last January and following it up with a teaser video in mid-February, Nadine posted a nearly 10-minute video where she discussed her childhood and musical influences.

Majority of the vlog, which Nadine edited herself alongside Chino Villagracia, contains home video clips of the actress-singer in her youth, rarely cutting to the present day as she continued narrating.

Following basic introductions, Nadine admitted to being a boyish child who loved biking to the sari-sari store and playing with her dad Ulysses or Dong’s Tamiya cars rather than her own dolls.

Other things she’d played with her group of friends were patintero, hide-and-seek, tag, Chinese garter and Dr. Quack Quack. Nadine revealed that she stopped playing with her friends because she started getting into computer games.

“When you’re a kid, you’re just curious about everything,” said the actress, before talking about her vulnerabilities, like being scared of ghosts, a prank her dad played on her, and a stuffed caterpillar named Cathy, which she still has to this very day.

Nadine then pivoted to her childhood aspirations, which went from becoming a manga artist and voice actor because of her love of anime to becoming a painter and photographer, and her first years as a young artist.

She appeared in a New Year’s advertisement and then hosted a theme park’s variety show, singing and dancing in the latter, if not going on rides or playing at the arcade.

The actress attributes her perceived good music taste to her parents: her mom Myraquel listened to pop music, her dad Ulysses collected tapes and vinyl records, and Nadine herself loved Britney Spears so much she wanted to be like her.

More recent clips of Nadine are seen as she admits she did not expect to be where she is now, despite having always wanted to be a performer since she was young.

“I realized that what I’m doing is pretty amazing, so I just kept going and found myself in the middle of all of this,” shared Nadine. “It’s tough, but I know that this is my dream.”

Nadine said she is grateful for everything she has experienced in her life. She is still figuring things out, but is happy with what she has at the moment.

“I can’t wait for the rest of my life to unfold. I don’t know where this road is gonna take me but one thing’s for sure, the girl on your screen right now is loving every minute of this,” Nadine ended, before the vlog closed with a clip of her young self. — Video from Nadine Lustre’s YouTube channel