WATCH: The Gonzaga Sissums' Hilarious "Good Vibes With Edu" Guesting
In between jokes and lighthearted banter, Alex and Toni talk about dealing with bashers, making time for oneself, and starting a social media career
Alex and Toni Gonzaga have indeed captured the hearts of Filipinos—from their hosting skills, acting chops, talent in singing and performing, to their personas on- and off-cam as well as on social media.
Despite their busy schedules as digital content creators and celebrities adapting to the new normal ways of working, they’ve made time for host Edu Manzano's Metro Channel show Good Vibes with Edu. Of course, as what can be expected when theses "sissums" get together, the episode was hilarious yet packed with meaningful pieces of advice, too.
Sibling goals
As Toni and Alex wrote in their best-selling book Sissums: The 18 Rules of Sisterhood under ABS-CBN Books, they've always been very close growing up.
Toni shared on Good Vibes With Edu that it was her dad who encouraged her to pursue her celebrity dreams. It was her mother, on the other hand, who helped her make the right career decisions.
And while Toni started earlier in the showbiz industry, the sisters shared a common struggle: “Bawal mag-jowa.” But with both stars now successful in their own careers, they have finally earned the blessing of their dad to pursue love—in Toni’s case, start a family of her own, and for Alex, get ready to become Mrs. Mikee Morada.
Despite all the successes that Toni and Alex now enjoy, Toni says one thing has never changed: “I love working with my sister because I feel like there’s a sense of home when she’s around.”
Dealing with bashers and trolls
Bashers and trolls are spreading negativity all over social media. But Toni has her own way of getting rid of bad vibes in her life:
“I’m very thankful that I’ve reached a point in my life where I realized that other people’s perception of me is not my responsibility anymore. Whatever judgement or assumption they have of me, I feel like I don’t have the need to explain, to prove, to defend, and to hide. I have nothing to prove; I have nothing to explain to everybody because I know who I am deep inside. And it took me so many years to find who I really was inside. If you get connected to your core, ’di ka na maaapektuhan sa ibang tao… [It’s] the power of learning how to ignore,” she says.
When asked how she deals with negativity, Alex jokes, “Love is all that matters faithful and forever.”
Establishing an online presence
Both Alex and Toni started their careers on TV and rose to stardom because of their acting and hosting gigs in various ABS-CBN shows. The digital world, however, has been very kind to the sisters as well, and has given their careers a new layer.
Alex, especially, has been very successful on YouTube, now with 7.9 million subscribers and counting. She's one of the top celebrity vloggers in the country, with videos that are always trending and much talked about. Toni, on the other hand, followed in her sister's footsteps in the cyberspace with her own YouTube channel that now has almost 1.5 million subscribers.
With many people dreaming of becoming social media influencers, vloggers, and celebrities, Edu asked Toni and Alex to share some pieces of advice to those who’d like to establish an online presence.
Alex shares, “Dapat ’wag mong isipin na kung ano ’yung nasa online, ’yun ka dapat. 'Wag kang manggaya ng nakikita mo lang. Gawin mo ’yung isang bagay because ito ka. ’Yun ’yung authentic self mo. Dapat you are sure that is really what you want and that is really who you are bago ka pa pumasok sa social media, kasi ’pag pumasok ka tapos madiktahan ka na ito ’yung trending ngayon, ito ’yung uso, by this time ganito na dapat karami ’yung followers mo, mapanghihinaan ka ng loob eh. So kailangan kilalanin mo muna ’yung sarili mo and then stick to it.”
Toni agrees and adds, “This is the time to go deep inside yourself, get to know who you are, what you really want in life, and just find that thing that sparks your passion. Hanapin mo ’yung isang bagay na nagpapa-excite sa’yo, that gives you the drive to wake up every single day, and you can say for yourself, ‘I love doing this.’ And if it’s something you love, you should go for it.”
If you missed it, you can watch the full episode of Good Vibes with Edu with Toni and Alex below to know which one has more suitors, who gives the best advice, and why Alex loves teasing Luis Manzano: