#iammeg.ph

[iamstephaniesol]

#IamMeg S2E11 Triple Elimination Episode

This has got to be the most emotional episode ever.

From six down to three! The pressure for all the remaining girls have sky rocketed. At this point, all we have to do is give it our 200% and live it all up to the universe. 

Our Meg Story Assignment was to do a mini make over on ourselves. We had to recreate an Etude House Make up look and make it our own in 15 mins. 

This was my look? Do you think I did well? I know my falsies are extreme.

Madame Ira recreated the best look of the day which led her to be our project manager. For the first time ever, we will be working as one big group for our Meg Project. 

Based on our Meg mantra, we were tasked to complete the verses of a song of which the chorus was written by our mentor Julz. We had test our song writing skills! The challenge was to complete the song and prepare for a glee-like performance for our Meg assembly.

Oh Gosh! Yani's facial expression suggests she understood how I felt! What a challenge. I told myself, if singing was a factor in being the Meg ambassador then how am I supposed to nail this? :/

I was drowned in nervousness but I just had to let it all go and put on my positive shoe. Smile and believe in yourself. Repeat one million times. 

The song writing was a daunting task for us. We had to make sure our message was clear. We thought of sharing our success and struggles in the competition, and when we were happy with what we wrote, we presented it to Julz. And when the green light was on, off we were to rehearsals. 

This is what we came up with. (Click the link to see our rehearsal video)

I am MEG Song

Chorus:

I am, I am, I am, I am strong

I am, I am, I am, I am beautiful

I have, I have, I have, I have a place in this world, a place in this world

I am Meg

Mistakes are yours to make

No need to doubt yourself

You can’t win it all

But dare to break the walls

I’ll make you see it’s who I’m meant to be

It’s all up to me

I am Meg

*insert tears here* 

I felt our song to be very powerful. It validates our imperfections but it sees it as a tool for learning. It tells us we can't have everything, but what we have is enough to create beautiful things. It tells us that we are empowered. We can make a difference. We are bold, beautiful and limitless. 

And then goes the deliberations, the hard part, the heart breaking part.

Our judges for the second to the last episode are  blogger, actress and vocalist of band Duster Saab Magalona + singer, songwriter and producer Jeffrey Hidalgo, and of course, Meg mentor and ambassador, and lead singer of Save Me Hollywood Julz Savard. 

During the Meg Assembly, each girl had to go up on stage, explain which line she wrote and do her speech. My line was…

" YOU CAN'T WIN IT ALL."

Fittingly, I did not win the title as the Meg ambassador, but I do not feel like I am a loser for I have won a much bigger prize- true friends, a supportive family and a life changing experience. (I'll save my good bye message for another post.)

I will be forever thankful to taken this I am Meg journey. The people I have worked with were inspiring.  My Meg family made me feel even more special- they have accepted me and my flaws, my weaknesses and my jeje moments. 

With some of the people you do not see in front of the camera but has touched my life immensely. Mama Kimm, Candy, Leo & Mikko (where were you?) and of course our director Mr. Mike Carandang. Thank you so much for being role models of passion and purpose. I feel so blessed to be part of #iammegseason2 because of you and the whole meg family.

*tears*

My emotions are taking over my thoughts. 

One more episode 'til we all find out who our Meg Ambassador is!

Thank you for supporting me in I am Meg Loves!!!

Shine,

STEPH

[iamstephaniesol]

#IamMeg S2E9 Mock Meg Cover

As an ambassador, a Meg lady must know to carry a conversation. 

That being said, our ninth Meg Story assignment is to undergo and interview with reporter-TV host-columnist IC Mendoza. 

I was the first one to be interviewed. I felt excited and nervous because I was expecting IC to ask juicy questions. I hope I was still able to answer all his questions with grace under pressure. Nonetheless, I had fun. Besides, talking is my cup of tea. :))

Proud to say I won the Meg Story assignment!!! Winning meant I had the most number of frames for our Mock Cover Meg Project. Yikes! The fifty frames didn't really feel like a reward. It was added pressure because I knew the expectations will be higher for me.

Before the overshoot, I underwent a consultation with Julz to find out who my peg is for the project. OMG it's Sarah G! Kamukha ko ba siya? Sana ka bosses din! :)) 

Helping the Meg ladies out for the shoot are Cenon (photog) Jandra (hair stylist) Kevin (stylist) and of course Julz our mentor.

That's a BTS of me tryna work FIERCE! I was very pressured in this photo shoot. I was not in the zone :( I had 50 frames but the shutter clicked a shot per second. I had to stop and check every 10 frames. I felt I wasn't getting it right :(

Nope! The photo above isn't fierce enough ;(

How about this photo? Could it work? I look sleepy :( Ugh!

Anyway, here's a BTS group shot of the 7 remaining Meg ladies. 

Kate-ception! I'm confused if that's Maja Salvador or Kate Alijandrino on the cover!

Fooling around while waiting for our mock cover shoot to begin. Jaz as Maxene Magalona, Yuki as Isabelle Daza and Trish as the sultry Solenn Heusaff. Ansaveeeehhhh?

Who do you think won this challenge? :)

Ohhh, I forgot to mention, we did our interview and mock cover shoot at Richmonde Hotel Eastwood. But we had to go back to the Meg HQ for the grueling deliberations. 

Our guest judges for the week are reporter-TV host-columnist IC Mendoza, One Mega Group Creative Director and host of Mega Fashion Crew 3: Reloaded Suki Salvador and our mentor Julz Savard.

Below is my mock cover. Uhhhohhh. I do not know why I look so edited (compared to my photos during the BTS as seen above). 

My amateur test-shot like photo, as what Suki mentioned, put me on the bottom 2 this week :(

I felt disappointed because I know I have produced better photos than this one. But to be fair and honest, I would associate this failure to deliver expected result with my lack of following Suki's advice of "conceiving beautifully, planning carefully, and executing perfectly."

A lesson learned. Preparation is always key. Doing photo shoots seem easy cause all you have to do is pose and flirt with the camera. However, it is easier said than done. You gotta be physically, mentally and emotionally prepared. The camera captures not only the substance and the form but also the spirit.

I was too nervous and pressured during the covershoot. I was over thinking the act of being fierce when all I had to do was breathe and think murder. Oh, I meant, breathe and bring out the feisty side of me. Haaaay naku! What an episode! 

Anywhoo, I've been babbling.

So, We've got 3/4 of the season covered. I wonder what will be the next challenges. 

Catch ya'll later. 

Shine,

STEPH

[iamstephaniesol]

#IamMeg S2E6 Iammeg.ph Online Campaign

This October, MEG comes up with a fierce and fresh double cover of actress Shaina Magdayao and I am Meg host Maxene Magalona.

In her latest cover interview, Max talked about haters and she wanted to talk about it with the MEG ladies too. We were exchanging stories of our own personal hater experience.

This got me thinking, I'm sure this conversation is related to the day's assignment but I couldn't put the two together, but Max did it for us.

Our MEG Story Assignment for the week was to create a 90-second skit on how to deal with haters. 

I thought the first way to deal with haters was to kill them all… with my killer smile. Hahaha. Haters gonna hate but I'll be forever corny. #sorrynotsorry :) 

(Thank you Mags for my pretty laced halter turtleneck sleeveless top)

I was grouped with Ira, Ellyz, Kate & Yuki and we thought of making a skit with a gossip girl feel. We wanted to portray a skit on how to deal with a hater/ a friend that talks negatively about you.

The team with Jaz, Trisha, Aen, Yani and Nicole won the challenge as they showed us 5 ways to deal with haters. I loved that they had some sining parts :))

Moving on, this week's MEG project was to create a 15-second online campaign for Iammeg.ph via Instagram's Instavideo. :)

"Your style, Your voice, be the Top Choice." that's Iammeg.ph's tagline. My partner Nicole and I thought of portraying or tapping different personalities to shoot in our video. We wanted it to be like a coming together kind of thing.

But then, during the further brainstorm and discussion, we got all confused of how we want it to be. This challenge was very stressful for me (as you can see). It is difficult to tell a story in 15 seconds. It is even more difficult to tell a story if you haven't decided which specific story is it that you want to tell. 

 On the last minute, we opted to make it into a "must have" video shot straight from instagram with the pause-delete-record-play utilities. 

The main message we wanted to say was that living in this generation, an online diary is a must-have for every girl. Self-expression is not a luxury but a duty and our video suggests that one platform you must have is iammeg.ph- an online community for bold, young women :)

MEG assembly time. I was sure that we didn't do too well this week. It was the indecidiveness that made us even more unprepared. So I was really nervous. 

Anyway, meet this week's guest judges model, blogger, host and entrepreneur- lahat na Divine Lee and IamMeg.ph content editor Carla Hutchinson.

In the end, I was right we were in the bottom two teams. And I was also right, team Ira & Trisha won! I loved their online campaign- it truly made me unleash my inner blogger. I should thank them for it! Without that video campaign, you wouldn't be reading this now. Umeffort ako. Eeffort pa ako because I know I am a far cry from a legit, worthily blogger.

This episode was a put down for me. It taught me a good lesson though. It reminded me how simple and clear works better than big but complicated ideas. Sometimes we have this big ideas, we want to achieve big things and accomplish bigger tasks but we forget the way to get those big things done is to start doing small things constantly. 

Want to achieve that chiseled abs on your belly, you can go crazy in the gym and undergo the most expensive crash diets just to make you lose 10lbs in two weeks… it might work, for a while but in the end it will be hard to maintain and you are setting yourself up to failure- risking your health. (I know my example probably suck, but that was top of mind, forgive me)

I like my name, it reminds me that all truly great things in life takes time and that I have to take one STEPH at a time. In this competition I've been doing two steps forward, one step back. Sometimes, one step forward and two steps back, but it doesn't matter much. I'll just work on improving myself. My greatest competition here isn't these girls, it is myself.

When I feel like I am not good enough, or when I feel that I cannot achieve great things…. I shall remind myself that I can. Maybe not right away, but I can, little by little… one STEPH at a time. 

Almost half way into the competition, I gotta stay strong and fight my own demons!

Shine,

STEPH

[alessilikesit]

Alessi likes IamMeg.ph

I haven't read a magazine in so long; I guess I've gotten too comfortable with reading style blogs on my phone. Ever since I was a kid though I've an affinity for magazines; their collage appeal and the smell of glossy paper just blow me away. I used to collect a shitload of magazines that they literally littered my bedroom floor. One of the many magazines I collected was Meg. I eventually outgrew the magazine collecting phase of my life, moving on to reading online style blogs (and being a lazy ass that can't be fucked to make collages lol). Good thing awesome awesome Meg magazine has kept up with the times and created a website that encapsulates everything that we love about this magazine and moooore! Perfect for you bitches that do everything on your phones/tablets; say hello to http://iammeg.ph/

I was invited to the launch of the iammeg.ph website and had such a great time. All them bitches dressed to the nines and were looking fantastic in the nudest of nudes in all types of drapes, skintight and pouffy varieites imaginable, and pops of color here and there. So much eye candy that night. Crappy photos for documentation!

With my gurlfran Alyssa!

Nice view from Skye bar; we sure had our fill of Malibu Sprite's that night OMG open bar is the best thing ever created.

Holy camoly it is Divine Lee I SHIT YOU NOT. *fangirl mode ON* had to take a piccie with her.

Same shoes!

Alyssa couldn't make up her mind whether to tuck her top in or not LOL.

The event was held at ultra-kewl Skye bar, which had a very photogenic skyline of BGC and the infamous faux grass that lined the entire area. The grass definitely made my night. The end!