I know Gina Pareño as an award winning actress both internationally and locally.
In 2006, this talented thespian won the Best Actress Award at the Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema and at the Brussels International Independent Film Festival for her role in Kubrador (The Bet Collector). My mother remembers her as a beautiful Filipina-American-German actress with a Dolly Parton Bosom and a whistle bait waist as a Sampaguita actress back in the 1960s. According to my mother, she was even Darna in the Vera Perez production of Darna at Ang Planetman in 1969.
Surprisingly, my 17-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son also know this beautiful actress but not as Gina Pareno but as Lola Gets. This means this amazing lady has a career that spans to almost 60 years and up to now she is still riding high!
Boasting 1.6 million followers in Tiktok, Lola Gets is verified in Tiktok and has beaten millennial and Gen Z celebrities with the number of views she has per post. Her first two posts back in May 2020 has almost reached 3 million accumulated views. I was actually able to interview Lola Gets in exchange for dancing with her in TikTok which now has 187,000 views in her page! I posted the same TikTok dance on my page and I only got 2,000 views! So what’s the secret of Lola Gets ? What do you have that we don’t Lola Gets?
“You don't have Josh Maghirang as business manager. Josh is like a son to me. He has been working for me for several years. During the pandemic, he suggested that I open a TikTok account. As a grandma, I have no idea what TikTok was, Instagram and other social media accounts. But Josh was a PR man before he became my business manager and he knew that a jolly dancing lola doing millennial moves would appeal to the millennials and the young ones. Since I was not doing anything during the pandemic, I took his advice. Dancing to the new tunes in TikTok made me feel young again. Instead of worrying during the pandemic, Josh and I were having fun making videos. As a senior citizen who cannot go out, staying home making TikTok videos made the lockdown a happy experience for me.If not for Josh, I would have rotten in age and depression during the pandemic. I am very thankful to him. He gave me a new life and a new energy that I could channel and monetize at the same time,” narrated Lola Gets with tears in her eyes. And apologies for being overly dramatic.
You can catch Lola Gets in TikTok at @yourlolagets. While you're at it, follow me as well in TikTok at @giselllesanchecomedian.