Amanda In The Morning

It takes a lot of guts to live and work in the limelight and Amanda Griffin is one gutsy lady.

Some people are so scared of failing, making mistakes, or what other people would say of them. They are afraid to open their own business, stutter when faced with an audience or a camera, or hide their bodies underneath t-shirts at the beach.

Amanda became a model, an entrepreneur and a television host all before she reached two dozen years because she did not let fear stop her from trying something at least once.

"I’m the kind of person who loves trying new things. I don’t think, ‘What if it doesn’t work?’" she says as she prepares for her photo shoot as the new endorser of Pond’s skin whitening line of products.

What works for Amanda when she tries out something new is her perfectio-nistic streak.

"Very much in the back of my mind is I try my darndest at everything I do," she says.

Amanda practically grew up in front of the camera–she started doing commercials when she was 13. She admits to being very shy, "but in front of the camera, I don’t have a problem."

In 2001, when Amanda grew tired of just modeling, she and her best friend Isabel Engwa started Tabu, a shop that sells high-end swimsuits from Australia.

Amanda opened Tabu so she would be able to use her degree in business communications from Bond University in Australia. She majored in marketing, media studies and Spanish.

Though Tabu is thriving–they will start getting products from Brazil and around Asia in a couple of months–Amanda and Isabel found that maintaining a business is very difficult.

"You have to live, eat and breathe your business," she reveals. "There are no days off. You think about your business and how you can improve it; if there’s a problem, how you can fix it."

They plan to concentrate more on selling casual wear in Tabu, "from around Asia, not just Australia anymore."

Not only is Amanda an entrepreneur who stays late at the shop, she is also a host in local shows F and Team Explorer, a veejay for Channel V Asia, and a model who goes to shoots all over Asia.

On top of all that, she writes a fashion advice column for Pink, a teen magazine.

"None of my jobs are 9 to 5," she admits. "I have these crazy, weird hours... I don’t get vacations anymore."

The long hours take their toll on Amanda, who says she simply hangs out with her friends after a hard day of work.

The stress also makes her skin break out, which could be a disaster for a model. Amanda says she regularly goes to her dermatologist but other than that, she does not really have a beauty regimen.

"Basically, I just wash my face and put moisturizer... Ponds, of course," she smiles.

Amanda’s frequent forays to the beach make her freckles come out, so she uses Pond’s skin whitener to even out her skin tone.

When she does have time to herself, Amanda loves reading criminal and political fiction, listing Tom Clancy, John Grisham and Robert Ludlum as her favorites. She also has the complete series of books by Patricia Cornwell, who created the character of forensic pathologist Dr. Kay Scarpetta.

"I was into Cornwell even before CSI came along... CSI is one of my favorite shows," she shares.

Aside from swimming, Amanda also loves to ride horses, play tennis –she was on her high school’s varsity team–and go wake-boarding, a relatively new boardsport created from a combination of water skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques.

As in water skiing, the rider is towed behind a boat and instead of skis, the rider uses a single board with bindings for each foot, standing sideways as on a snowboard.

Amanda admits that she wants to have bigger breasts and a more toned body, but hates going to the gym and doesn’t have the time anyway. She is also "very naughty–I eat a lot of junk food," she laughs.

"I think it’s just being a girl. I have not met any girl who is satisfied with everything she has," Amanda muses.

However, if she has a scheduled swimsuit shoot, she does diet a little to appear better in photographs. Asked how she feels about being photographed in such skimpy pieces of clothing, Amanda says she is comfortable in swimsuits because she grew up on the beach.

Amanda observes that Filipinas in general have made a lot of progress in shucking the t-shirt over the swimsuit syndrome.

Filipinas are a "little less inhibited now because they are more fashion conscious. They are realizing it’s not a bad thing to show a little bit more skin for the beach," she says, adding though that they still have a long way to go since many are still "very shy" about wearing bikinis.

Amanda advises those who would like to bare their bodies at the beach "not to be conscious about what other people think. It’s more heightened here than in other countries. You can’t please everyone. Just please yourself and those you love and care about."

While Amanda is "open to anything" in terms of career, she would like to focus on business in the next couple of years. She plans to open a restaurant and bar, just like her British father, Tony Griffin, who did the concept for the Prince of Wales restaurant years ago.

Amanda wants her restaurant and bar to be "lounge-y," with a Moroccan theme, similar to one of her favorite places in Thailand.

"But I don’t know how well that would work here. Filipinos are very fickle in their taste. It’s very rare for a restaurant to survive for a long time," she says.

Amanda notes that her father has started six restaurants so she "knows how difficult it is".

She also plans to travel around the world within the next five to ten years.

"I’ve been to the United States, and parts of Europe and Asia. I want to go to South America, Africa and Antarctica. Africa to experience living with a tribe. And I want to see the animals, the glaciers in Antarctica!" Amanda says with excited anticipation.

She also wants to act in an independent film but is leery of acting on stage. "That’s scary. I took an acting class when I was very young," she says.

Amanda, who professes "not to know what’s around the next corner" in her life, sees herself at age 50 to be "happily married, with a lot of kids and a nice business empire."

What about world domination? "Asia first," Amanda says with a grin.