What nurtures a talent to blossom? Amid the numbers game of viral fame, Niana Guerrero grounds herself in what truly matters.

PHOTOGRAPHY Cenon At Mav &nbsp; STYLING Yanna Lopez
Niana Guerrero practically snuck onto the set on the day of her cover shoot. Hoodie up, head down, unassuming&mdash;the complete opposite of the swaggering, brazen 18-year-old Filipino dancer and choreographer with over a hundred million followers across social platforms and over a billion likes on TikTok alone. Yet her eyes peek through the hood, roving and observant, just like a dancer waiting for their cue.
&ldquo;Honestly, I can be more shy in person,&rdquo; she confesses shortly after glam. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not really good with words. Dance is how I express myself.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Dance is everything to me. I dance when I&rsquo;m sad, happy, excited&mdash;I dance all the time,&rdquo; she explains. &ldquo;Dance has always been a part of me.&rdquo;
Guerrero&rsquo;s earliest memory of dance begins with music. She was only four years old, lured out of bed by the groove of pop songs. It&rsquo;s her dad, Ni&ntilde;o, behind the deck, spinning records. While he is known for managing the Guerrero siblings&rsquo; influencer careers for the past decade, at home, he&rsquo;s still a DJ, getting the kids started on the O.G.s like Michael Jackson.
She would watch her brother, Ranz Kyle, dancing and would join him, doing her best impression of the King of Pop&mdash;moonwalking, anti-gravity leaning, and even the crotch grab. She recalls laughing, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d even wear a hat while I copied his moves!&rdquo;
The siblings rose to online fame as digital natives, capturing milestones as well as candid moments of goofing around together on YouTube as early as 2012. &ldquo;What we do on camera is pretty much the same off camera,&rdquo; she says. This means she&rsquo;s bound to break out into dance at one point or another&mdash;which is exactly how her Despacito video with her brother happened in 2017. Singing and dancing from her brother&rsquo;s passenger seat, she let the music move her. With 59 million views, it remains her most popular YouTube video.
As they grew up, they started taking dance more seriously, teaching each other, learning from dance tutorials and challenges in a range of genres, and sharing their progress in mash-ups and dance battles.
The likes kept coming, but more than the validation, it was the engagement that moved her. She enjoyed seeing how she encouraged others to dance. &ldquo;So I kept doing it,&rdquo; she says. She isn&rsquo;t one to back down from more complex dance challenges, but she soon locked in on her niche. &ldquo;I try to create dance steps that are more doable for everyone, not just dancers, so a lot of people can do it,&rdquo; she explains. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s really important if you want a dance challenge to blow up.&rdquo;

Authenticity and approachability are key to Guerrero&rsquo;s success. To capture it on camera, spontaneity is essential, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean she&rsquo;s about to record herself looking anything less than presentable.
She starts with skincare no matter what, cleansing her face before applying &ldquo;a good amount of moisturizer when needed,&rdquo; she says, and never skipping sunscreen during the day.
As for makeup, &ldquo;I usually keep it more natural day-to-day. I usually do it myself,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I love the BYS Stackables,&rdquo; she points out, referring to the multi-palette blush duo powder cr&egrave;me that makeup artist Anthea Bueno used on her, built up and layered for a more dramatic flush, giving her ideas for special occasions.
That Guerrero is the face of the product line is an honest endorsement. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really smart. I like the colors, and the blush and lip combo go well together,&rdquo; she describes. &ldquo;I feel like it pulls the look together, and it&rsquo;s quick!&rdquo;
She could be scrolling her FYP when she comes across a trend she resonates with. &ldquo;It definitely has to have swag and good vibes,&rdquo; she says. While she now has a production team to help plan and film her content, she doesn&rsquo;t have to wait for them when inspiration strikes. She grabs her Stackable, dabs, and blends the smooth, creamy formula all over with just her fingers. Just like that, she&rsquo;s ready to film.

When Meghan Trainor invited Guerrero to her house to join the singer&rsquo;s To The Moon dance challenge, she was impressed by how Guerrero learned the choreography in just five seconds. The truth is, what appears effortless is, in fact, honed with hard work and relentless practice. She has been professionally coached by Filipino choreographer Louise Castillo three times a week since she was 13.
&ldquo;The biggest lesson I&rsquo;ve learned is to keep investing your time in learning,&rdquo; she shares. &ldquo;No matter how good you are, there&rsquo;s always room for improvement. Keep practicing, and you&rsquo;ll get better and better.&rdquo;
With Castillo&rsquo;s distinct hip-hop style&mdash;informed by the choreographer&rsquo;s background in dancehall and jazz&mdash;Guerrero develops her own style, incorporating hip-hop moves to some of the biggest pop hits, like Billie Eilish&rsquo;s Birds of a Feather. It definitely caught the American singer&rsquo;s attention; they even hung out backstage in Los Angeles and at Eilish&rsquo;s listening party. Guerrero will never forget bumping into Justin Bieber with Hailey that night.
Her signature swag added a fun contrast to the very demure, very cutesy Sabrina Carpenter when they performed Feather. Her take on Jungkook&rsquo;s funk-pop Standing Next To You received a like and follow from the singer; Guerrero is keeping her fingers crossed for a collaboration one day.
Aside from Castillo, she looks up to Sean Lew, known for working with NCT 127&rsquo;s Taeyong and Mark and choreographing Jackson Wang&rsquo;s Cheetah, and Sean Bankhead, the dancer and choreographer behind Tate McRae&rsquo;s It&rsquo;s okay I&rsquo;m okay and Lisa&rsquo;s Rockstar. Both dancer/choreographers broke into the industry by going viral on YouTube. Could this be Guerrero&rsquo;s next move?

Authenticity&mdash;or the illusion of it&mdash;is prime social media currency. Guerrero keeps it real precisely because she doesn&rsquo;t spill everything.
She&rsquo;s growing up right before our eyes. Lately, her little sister Natalia has become what she was like to Ranz Kyle. She explains, &ldquo;She sees [the dance videos] all the time!&rdquo; They do a lot of dance challenges when they bond, but Guerrero is setting limits.
&ldquo;It can be tricky; most of my life is already on the internet,&rdquo; she admits. &ldquo;But I make sure to keep little things just for myself, my family, and my friends. Not everything needs to be out there.&rdquo;
Dance is everything to her, but it&rsquo;s not the only thing. Her family remains at the core of it all&mdash;they&rsquo;re the reason she started in the first place.
When the phones are away, they don&rsquo;t stop goofing off together at the Guerrero home. &ldquo;Lately, my siblings and I have been playing this game called Chained Together,&rdquo; she reveals. &ldquo;We were screaming at 3 AM!&rdquo;
Guerrero is also picking up DJ skills from her dad; maybe it&rsquo;s her turn to introduce him to new music. In her downtime, she enjoys playing the guitar, singing, drawing, and watching movies.
When the phones are back and recording, she brings that same energy not only to the audience but also to the people she collaborates with. &ldquo;I just have fun with it, and with the people around me, it&rsquo;s even more fun,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;It never really feels like a job. I just love doing it.&rdquo; It looks fun because it truly is.

Top, MARTIN BAUTISTA

<div class="page" title="Page 7">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
PRODUCERS Loris Peña and Knelle Rosario 
CREATIVE DIRECTION Yanna Lopez 
SET DESIGN Studio Mara 
HAIR Jay Aquino 
MAKEUP Anthea Bueno 
VIDEO DIRECTION Bimpoman
</div>
</div>
</div>

In Bloom: Niana Guerrero

Recommended posts for you

Culture

Union of Trade: Pauline Juan Harnesses the Power of Business and Creativity

Fashion

Mark "Jappy Gonzalez" Shows Us What It Means To Have Staying Power in Fashion

Culture

Kevin Kwan Is Setting the Scene for Asian Talent

Culture

Miguel Syjuco Finds a Way Forward with His Second Novel, I Was the President's Mistress!!

Beauty

Achieve Smooth, Glowing Skin With This Science-Forward Serum Lotion From Vaseline

Fashion

Essence by Kristine Dee: Jewelry That Speaks to You

Culture

Switzerland Immerses Us to the Ecstasy of Elevation

Fashion

A Peek Inside the Star-Studded Swarovski "Masters of Light" Exhibition in Seoul