This is an excerpt from MEGA Feb-March 2026 Beauty Profile
It is as if the world hit a pause. Delicate threads of light seeping through cracks and gaps. Shadows slowly casting away. Colors coming to life. Temperature settling into the perfect warmth. Notes of roasted beans wafting through the air. Birds chirping. Chickens clucking. “Paniwalaan” by Blue Jeans drifting softly from the radio. But, somehow, the stillness is undisturbed. It is of its own kind, isn’t it? Mornings in the provinces, that is.
Selina Woo Bhang captured this exact scene for her recent personal project, HappyNew End.
“It’s beautiful. It should be a film.” I said in between sips of my drink. It’s the first time we have seen each other this year. But funny enough, it isn’t the first time we have found ourselves at the exact table of the exact restaurant. We sat there comfortably for most of the night, recounting stories of recent media consumption, holiday vacations, and of course, home.
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HappyNew End shows that. The one-minute-and-thirty-second documents her slow, unhurried mornings in the province. Somewhat an intimate lens as to how she described it. “I grew up in Luyos, San Antonio. It’s a small city in Nueva Ecija but it’s abundant in life,” Selina remembers it perfectly: her favorite kambingan, her neighborhood’s old-fashioned manual water well, her memories of playing with chickens and carabaos, and her tricycle rides to a nearby river. “I had such a rich and grounded childhood. I feel that if you look at me now, I still carry a lot of that within me.”
Selina understands it. Beauty. This much becomes clear when you ask her: What did beauty mean to the little girl you once were? To which she will answer with a smile, “My lola’s sopas.”
“Does she make them with hotdog and chicken strips?” I said.
“Yes! My lola would also make it creamier,” she thought back to. “It’s impossible to think of my childhood without my lola’s sopas and my aunt’s turbo chicken.”
This led her to talk about her relationship with her grandparents. “I grew up with them the most because my parents were still in Manila for work, trying to get us a small house to move into. We took tricycles to the river. It was very magical. My lolo would always tell me stories about sirenas in the water and kapres hiding in the tree. It is such a beautiful memory—spending my childhood playing in rivers, lakes, and grass.”
In the same conversation, I learned that her first exposure to beauty was through her lola, “I was so curious about pulbo and then blush-on. There was a time when I saw her applying the blush-on and would ask: What is that? Is it a cherry that you would put on the face? Like the paint of a cherry? I used to think makeup came from the fruits.”
“My lola taught me this old beauty practice of brushing your hair repeatedly to promote length and strength. It is something that I still do today,” she brought up with enthusiasm. “She also loves letting me wear those hair ties that come with what look like little jelly aces on them. It’s painful. But! It looks so cute when I look at my old photos.”
Is there any more that could define our idea of beauty than what we first learned as children? I have read about this before. How it stays with us for life. How it influences our sensitivity to beauty. How it is the backbone of our routine. How it is something that we will eventually pass on. Selina, who has approached both life and art with the same rhythm, made me realize that.
Dinner concluded as soon as the restaurant reminded us that they were closing in five minutes. Selina suggested that we can take a walk around Paseo De Roxas towards Salcedo. It was a convenient route for plentiful reasons. One, the park has a good view. The other reason was, some conversations are best shared outdoors. The topic about her career as a model came up when we were waiting for the red light to go green.
“The number one question I get is why I still choose to model,” she began. “It’s been a while and I can technically retire.”
Modelling had not previously been on her radar. Selina was sold to the idea that she was going to pursue another career in the industry. Or, verbatim: I told myself I wanted to become a fashion designer. But others saw promise in her in modelling. Selina had, since 2019, started professionally modelling. “My first ad was for a beauty brand. It was a lipstick campaign and I got paid like Php 5,000,” she said. “ And then I did a couple of extra jobs also in terms of being an extra in a hotel ad.”
There are instances where it feels humbling. Selina shared that she often journaled about this thought: Did I really book this job? Did I really expect myself to last this long? Many entered the industry on different grounds. Selina worked hard to support her family. “Modelling was the way I funded my siblings’ education and to help pay my mom’s bills and everything in the province,” she said. “It was very fruitful in the first few years in terms of being able to support my family when my dad passed on.”
That sense was freeing to her. But modeling did not confine her. Selina continues to explore her discipline as a graphic designer and interdisciplinary artist through various inspirations, practices, mediums. It is impressive if you think about it. To be able to tell stories in any creative genre. “Directors know how to write, shoot, and edit. I feel like it’s the same on my end,” she told me. “I love films. I love photography. I love illustrations. I love writing. Why not do it all?”
Among all the roles she has taken in graphic design and art, I ask, what is it about modeling that still calls to her?
“At this point, I can retire,” she playfully said. “But, I always wanted someone who looked like me when I was growing up. I think my main goal as a model ever since was to represent myself. That there are faces like me which I’m happy about because there are a lot of faces like me now.”
This is something that she strongly advocates for. Representation. There’s no posture here: Selina knows this invisibility. “I’m Filipino-Korean. I’m East Asian and also Southeast Asian. I grew up in the province and I eventually moved to the city. The confusion of who you are at the end of the day can feel unsettling and isolating, especially when you are young,” she opened up, “The truth is, people treat you differently too. Not only because of the language barrier. But also because they don’t really see a lot of kids that look like me.”
Read more about Selina Woo Bhang in MEGA’s Feb-Jan 2026 issue, now available on Readly, Magzter, Press Reader and Zinio.
Photographed By: SELA GONZALES. Art Director CLARE MAGNO. Producer THESSMAR LECTURA. Fashion Associate: KRISSIE TERUEL. Makeup MIKI LIUSON. Hairstylist MATT LEDESMA. Stylist: CARYLL CABUHAT. Nails ALMA TORNIADO of TRIPLE LUCK NAIL AND BROW SALON. Fashion ARAW THE LINE and MUNI MUNI. Shot on Location TREEHOUSE POBLACION.
