Bretman Rock talks about living his Pinoy life in Hawaii
The baddest is home!
Filipino-American YouTuber Bretman Rock has returned to the Philippines for the launch of his memoir, You're That Bitch.
Speaking to PhilSTAR L!fe and the rest of the media last March 1, Bretman, who was born in the province of Cagayan Valley and has been living in Hawaii since he was seven, revealed that his book was highly inspired by his childhood, his family, and his experience as a Filipino immigrant in America.
The 24-year-old content creator began by saying that his stay here in Manila has been nothing but amazing that he realized he wants to make it a point to come back every year.
“I just wanna start feeling like a bad b-tch,” he said, joking “I need to come back every year because I feel like such an artista here.” As of writing, Bretman has 8.9 million subscribers on YouTube, 15 million followers on Tiktok, and 18.5 million followers on Instagram.
The story of Bretman is very unique yet it resonates with a lot of Filipinos, as most of the topics in his book are about his family. Bretman revealed that back when he was living in the Philippines, he used to share a home with 25 other people.
“Well I live in a 5-bedroom home with 25 people and so I felt like I was living in a sitcom every day, so obviously I was gonna write everything about them,” the content creator said, adding that he kept a journal with him and wrote mostly about his journey with his family.
When Bretman and his family moved to Hawaii, he shared that he always had a penchant for Filipino shows, citing Maria Clara, Super Inggo, ASAP, and It's Showtime as some of his favorite shows. He revealed that Pinoy Big Brother and Star Circle Quest were also some reality TV shows that inspired him ever since he was a kid to become the artist that he is now.
"I feel like every Pinoy has dreamed of being an artista someday," he said. "I was such a delusional kid. So yeah, I always thought I was an artista even if I wasn't."
He expressed that one of the things that made him realize that he 'made it' is because he is here in the Philippines promoting his book and being interviewed by the press is so profound for him. But for him, the pandemic as well helped him realize that he could do more than beauty content.
"Looking back, I think the pandemic really made me feel like [a] bad bitch because it forced me to kind of be creative with my work and that was kind of around the time where I was kind of moving myself from the beauty community I started "of the day" series and that's when I realized that I could literally just post like, me reviewing cereal and y'all would watch it. I could review like coconut water and people would watch it," he said.
"I think that made me just realize like, 'Oh my god I'm not just a beauty girl.' I'm just think more than than meets the eye. And I think that's when I realized that I could do anything. And then I sold my show to MTV, I wrote a book—that was just opened a floodgate honestly," Bretman added.
At the last part of his press con, he was asked to give a piece of advice to the younger generations who would want to follow in his footsteps. Bretman's advice? "Just post it!"
“I feel that the biggest thing among the aspiring influencers is the hesitation to put out content. I say just post it!"
He added: "I know there are so many funny videos in your camera roll that are waiting for the world to see and I think that people’s insecurities eat them up, they just won’t post them. Just post it, girl! Especially with the internet, anything goes viral. The more you post, as long as you’re not hurting anybody, and it comes in good light, I think it’s bound to go viral, so just post that thing!”