When Mimiyuuuh broke the news to her family that she was finally moving out to live on her own, her dear father couldn’t help but toss a preposterous accusation—only half in jest: “Magso-solo ka lang kasi magdadala ka ng lalaki dun!”
“Which is hindi totoo!” she insists, laughing.
The truth is, she has been raring to be independent. She wants to figure herself out and do it in a place where she can live out her “Sex and the City” fantasies—minus Mr. Big, thank you very much. Because if there’s one thing she has realized lately, it’s that “there’s more to life than having a partner.”
“I’m not lonely, I’m just alone. Just because I’m alone doesn’t mean I’m lonely! Period!”
“Ang saya-saya ko mag-isa. I get to do a lot of things,” she says. “I’m not lonely, I’m just alone. Just because I’m alone doesn’t mean I’m lonely! Period!”
READ: Adulthood and the myth of change
‘Carrie ng Salcedo’
The more Mimiyuuuh visited Makati for work, the more she saw herself living there. Salcedo Village sounded like a good idea. It’s hip, walkable, and has just enough greenery. She could already picture herself, wearing kitten heels and skittering from one café to the next.
Turning 29 on Nov. 11 seemed as good a reason as any for getting a place in the neighborhood. Before long, she was signing her name—Jeremy Sancebuche—on the paperwork for her dream Salcedo condo. It was her birthday gift to herself.
“I feel like this is where adulting really starts, ’yung ikaw lahat gagawa on your own—ikaw ang hahanap ng movers, ikaw ang mag-aayos ng forms,” says Mimiyuuuh, who plans to settle in soon once her place is ready. “Parang, sure ba tayo sa pinasok nating ito? Pero ito ’yung mga bagay na magpapatatag at magpapatapang sa ’tin in life.”
But unlike Bradshaw, who was rarely, if ever, shown doing household chores, the self-proclaimed “Carrie ng Salcedo” has no choice but to. News flash: Real-life adulting also looks like mopping the floor at night, with her mother to the rescue via video call to make sure she’s doing it right.
The scent of success
She grew up poor in a modest home in Baclaran—yes, the one with green walls and the pink Zooey Lucky Star cabinet—where she began what would become a life-changing vlogging journey. Interestingly, she and her two siblings weren’t expected to do chores. Their parents, especially their father, did it all: cooking, cleaning, keeping the household running. Meanwhile, the kids simply went to school, played, and went to bed.
She’s grateful for that. But now she’s happy she gets to do those things herself. Cleaning, she says, has turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable—therapeutic, even. Chanel No. 5 might be chic, but for Mimiyuuuh, nothing smells like success quite like the scent of bleach in a freshly scrubbed bathroom.
After securing her family home in 2020 and a beach lot in Zambales earlier this year, the condo became the latest addition to her growing portfolio of real estate properties. It’s her favorite investment, or any purchase, for that matter. But her parents? Not so much.
“Medyo malungkot sila, actually. Ang nanay at tatay ko kasi medyo takot sa heights,” she shares. For that reason, they probably won’t spend Christmas there. “They’re unsure about it. They aren’t as supportive, at least for now, because they don’t believe condos are an investment,” she adds. “But I think, in the future, they will understand better why I did it.”
Peace of mind
Fair enough. The acquisition was made partly out of indulgence—a well-earned reward after years of hard work as a content creator, entrepreneur, and fashion influencer. It’s the year she realized that she “deserves everything”—her year of “splurging,” as she puts it.
But splurging doesn’t necessarily mean being impulsive. In fact, this is Mimiyuuuh thinking ahead. She already has an endgame in mind, which sounds simple—but not really: to live a peaceful and happy life. But peace of mind, no matter how much we romanticize it as something we can just cultivate within, is still ultimately tied to financial stability.
While she’s now in a place where she can—and enjoys—treating her loved ones to nice things, she’s also well aware that her footing will not always be guaranteed. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her mother caught the virus and, at one point, was considered “50-50.” It was at that moment she realized what many of us already suspect: We’re just one emergency away from poverty.
“Kahit gaano ka kayaman or kalaki ang ipon mo, kapag tinamaan ka ng sakit, mawawala ’yun,” she points out. “So as cliché as it may sound, my wish is always for my family to have good health, especially dito sa ’tin na ang healthcare ay parang walang patutunguhan.”
“So as cliché as it may sound, my wish is always for my family to have good health, especially dito sa ’tin na ang healthcare ay parang walang patutunguhan.”
‘More neck!’
That future is still a long way off. So while her life and career have already taken her to many different places, she’s not putting the proverbial car in park anytime soon. From the looks of it, Mimiyuuuh is keeping her foot on the gas, skrrt, skrrting her way toward new goals.
Last October, she was named the face of Manila Fashion Week, modeling and showcasing looks by participating local designers. That same month, she made her international runway debut in Singapore, where the brand Ha.Mu presented its “Ganito Kaya? The Remix” collection.
As someone who “lives and eats fashion” and challenges beauty and gender norms in a traditionally exclusionary world, the significance of her achievements isn’t lost on her.
“Maraming nanonood sa ’kin na mga batang bading. For them to see that someone na hindi perfect is making it, I feel like it gives them hope na if kaya ko, kaya rin nila,” she says. “Mas nae-empower natin ang queer community.”
“Maraming nanonood sa ’kin na mga batang bading. For them to see that someone na hindi perfect is making it, I feel like it gives them hope na if kaya ko, kaya rin nila.”
Perhaps that’s why she approaches every photo shoot—like this one for Scout in Studio Yel—as if her fate on “America’s Next Top Model” depended on it. She makes sure to smize, stay fierce, and “give more neck”—lessons she learned from the reality show, which she religiously followed back in high school.
A fashion design and merchandising graduate from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Mimiyuuuh owns the street style brand Fangs, which she put up after interning with renowned Filipino designer Mark Bumgarner. Admittedly, creating fashion has taken a backseat to consuming it in recent years, but she hopes to get back to that grind given the opportunity.
“Fashion is part of who I am. I’m not closing any doors,” says Mimiyuuuh, who grew to love fashion, helping her mother sell clothes near Baclaran Church. “Nakaka-miss din mag-produce.”
The renewed joy of vlogging
But as she continues to build her name in the world of style, she has also let go of the pressures of vlogging.
The landscape of content creation has drastically changed since she started out on YouTube about six years ago. Bite-sized formats like TikTok videos and Instagram Reels now dominate, and fewer people are willing to sit through anything longer than five minutes.
“Nakakalungkot lang na ang attention spans ng mga tao medyo umiiksi,” she says. “I feel like people are now more conscious about how they spend their time. And since there are so many platforms now, nahahati na rin ang views.”
On YouTube, monetization has become much stricter, making the platform less lucrative for creators who rely solely on ad revenue. These changes demanded diversification—something Mimiyuuuh instinctively adopted. Endorsements and brand deals are now her primary revenue streams, she says, while vlogging has returned to what it was for her before: a hobby.
“Hindi ko na dinidibib. Dati, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh wala akong upload this week.’ I would feel like I wasn’t doing enough,” she recalls. “Na-pressure ako kasi naging trabaho na siya.”
“But now, I’m back to living my life and doing the things I like,” she says.
No longer beholden to her self-imposed quotas, she has rediscovered vlogging for the sheer joy of it—and, more importantly, as a way to stay connected with her followers. “I no longer do it to earn,” she says. “The people who still watch my vlogs, sila ’yung sumusuporta talaga. That’s what it means to me.”
It’s little things like these that keep her grounded, and in her new place, she has found spaces that bring her back just the same. The first time she saw the maid’s quarters, it all started to sink in: “Dati ganito lang kaliit tinutulugan mo, tapos magkakasama pa kayo. Ngayon, buong unit na tinitirhan mo. Sobrang surreal. Amazed ako sa buhay na binigay sa ’kin ng universe.”
And that’s something she still misses, even if she now has the privacy and all the space she could ever want. She has grown comfortable sleeping alone, but it’s still when she’s sharing a room with her siblings and her niece that she feels most at home.
Aspire to inspire
The thing about rags-to-riches tales is that the damsel in distress eventually becomes a princess. The rags turn into gowns, the slippers into glass. Of course, the ascent to a better life is something always worthy of admiration and celebration. But somewhere along the way, the underdogs we once rooted for, so relatable at first, suddenly feel a little further away.
Every now and then, comments pop up online from people who say they miss the old vlogs, back when everything felt simpler. How does she balance being relatable and aspirational? Has she ever worried that she might be getting a little out of reach the more successful she becomes?
She admits there are times she does. “May mga ganun talagang mga instances,” she says. “But I feel like we need to evolve and elevate ourselves. I don’t like settling. And, how do I put this…You can only reach something aspirational if you don’t settle. I love challenges.”
As we move forward, it’s inevitable that we leave something behind. But what matters most is what we choose to carry with us. For Mimiyuuuh, that’s her family, friends, and everyone who believed in her when it felt like life wasn’t going anywhere.
“Kung sino si Mimiyuuuh nung nasa Baclaran siya, I feel like siya pa rin ’yun kahit nasa Salcedo na siya.”
And while she won’t be bringing her pink cabinet to her new place, she’s making sure that its spirit comes with her by commissioning an artist to create a relief that reimagines this defining piece of herself.
“You can take the girl out of Baclaran, but you can’t take the Baclaran out of the girl. That’s what I believe,” she says. “Kung sino si Mimiyuuuh nung nasa Baclaran siya, I feel like siya pa rin ’yun kahit nasa Salcedo na siya.”
Photography by Dennis Sulit. Styling by Lynus, assisted by Jasper Añonuevo. Makeup by Thazzia Falek. Hair by Dale Mallari. Shot at Studio Yel.
This story was first published in Scout’s January 2026 print issue.
