Girt, You Earned It

SOFIA ANDRES is treating showbiz like a 9-to-5, but she’s not clocking out

- Olivia Sylvia Estrada

ACTRESS SOFIA ANDRES TAKES ON her industry commitments with a unique drive to succeed. She knows that she has to deliver as long as the camera demands it. That’s rare for a 19-year-old feeling the weight of the tyranny of choice. When everything is a tap away on your phone, you kind of want to be everything at once. When you’re an actress with 2.6 million followers on Instagram watching your every move, the options can be dizzying.

But despite all of the other possibilities available to millennials, Sofia learned the importance of focus at an early age. She started out doing commercials as a kid and then progressed to fashion shows. Eventually, acting came. Unlike other showbiz fairytale stories, where the stars are discovered while doing mundane things in unlikely places, Sofia took control of her own destiny from the beginning. “When I wanted to audition, my mom didn’t want [me] to do it at first.” She was determined, even in her early teens. “I really wanted it, I wanted to be in front of the camera and I fell in love with it.”

Her early work life was full of fun memories, like catching That’s So Raven after school and using her first flip phone. Unlike the people around her, however, working in showbiz wasn’t a short stint but a still-rising career. “Maybe I was born to act,” she says, offering an explanation for why she’s so comfortable on set. From barely being able to say hi when she arrives at the studio for this shoot to exchanging jokes with everyone once she has her makeup and first outfit on, Sofia quickly gets in the zone−her zone.