MANILA, Philippines — Even for celebrity influencer Richard Juan, coming up with a steady stream of content for fans during the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic proves to be a challenge.
The “Love Thy Woman” actor said that before taping, much of the content he put out was focused on traveling.
“I was in Paris, I was in Korea, I was in Spain. But all of that has to kinda like pause muna kasi we can't travel and that's something that I really miss a lot. And it's hard in a sense that what can you do, you know, here at home in terms of content creation?” he related.
Richard realized, however, that his supporters enjoy his writing regardless if he is unable to travel.
In one instance, he forgot to start off his morning with the usual motivational tweet and a Twitter follower had prodded him about it.
“So it makes me feel na parang okay kahit mga small things that I do pala napapansin ng mga tao. So I guess in a way, you just have to be creative with what you can do that's limited,” Richard narrated.
“A way for me to feel good about myself is to be productive. And iba iba naman syempre 'yung tao. Some people they don't feel as energized and don't feel as productive but it's okay. At the end of the day, you just gotta do what you gotta do to survive this pandemic.”
According to him, influencers should use their "influence" to speak up and enlighten their followers on real-life issues.
"(For) people who keep their mouth shut and don't do anything, I'm sorry, you don't deserve the platform," he said.
"Nakakapikon lang na there are people who have thousands and thousands more followers than me but yet pa-cute lang, naggagawa lang sila ng prank. If so many people watch the stuff that you do and you don't use this platform wisely, you just continue to keep people dumb, I'm sorry, you don't deserve this." — Video by Efigenio Toledo IV