It must be the eyes—those big green eyes that are just trademark Herrera. Or maybe it’s the flirty and girly twang, accentuated with a laugh every other sentence. Or her travel experience, either on a trip for the New York Fashion Week or as continent-hopping world conqueror. Whatever it is, Victoria “Vicky” Herrera always stands out, even in a faded yellow shirt and skinnies tucked in heeled boots on one of the rare hot days in November.

But then, it has always been her habit to stand out without even trying—whether as an honor student almost two years ago or as a model/DJ/magazine editor/store owner. With the many jobs that she has taken on, one may wonder, is there anything that this girl says “No” to?

When I grow up

While most 15- or 16-year-olds would be engrossed in the latest episode of some teen drama on cable, Vicky was headlong into building a resumé to contest any college fresh grad.
It was then that she turned away from childish dreams—“When I was a child, obviously, I wanted to be a princess”—and focused on concretizing her interests to something more than just playing dress up.

Her slide into the writing business came when she asked to be a contributor of Meg magazine. She ended up writing horoscopes, her first official job, albeit an exciting one for her—back then, at least.

“When you’re at that age, you think it’s such a big deal,” says Vicky. “You’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m gonna write the horoscope!’”

Aside from those monthly predictions, Vicky pulled out clothes and attended photo shoots. “What’s important is that you have to start working young and try to learn, because by the time you get to 20 or 21, at least you’d have a better grasp on the industry that you want to go into,” she says.

A year later, she was following the footsteps of older sister Teresa, gracing covers of magazines as a model. It was as if her main goal back then was to love working. And apparently, work loved her back.

“Hell yeah”

The day she said the first yes that triggered a domino effect of yes-es was the day she woke up and realized that she was, indeed, a bum. Having just graduated with a degree in Communication, Vicky was faced with the question—what am I going to do with my life now?
“I didn’t know where I was going but I knew that as long as I appreciated what I was doing, [it was] gonna lead to something,” she says.

Seven months of post-graduation time-out spent reading, traveling, and evaluating her work, Vicky realized that writing is one of her first loves after all. “Writing for me is like breathing. I don’t need to think,” she says. “So I started writing.”

No longer a neophyte, she did reviews for Status magazine then moved on to feature articles. When her sister Rosario asked her if she was willing to take on the role of editor, three guesses what Vicky’s answer was.

Come February, her sister approached her with a sweet deal—was she willing to be a part of the Trilogy team? “It was a lot of trust in me. [They said], ‘We want you to be one of our partners, not as a sister but as a partner.’ That meant a lot to me,” says Vicky.

Then seven months after that, she got a call from her agent and was told that Sarah Meier wanted her to co-host The Dollhouse, a radio show in U92FM. “I don’t host. I don’t do radio,” says Vicky. “But at that time, I’m like, why not? Just do it.”

Jane of all trades

With all her success pre- and post-college life, a picture of Vicky the stereotypical model who blazed through school with her looks, cut class because of a hangover, and took remedial classes may be so easy to summon.

But three on three—one would be so dead wrong.

“Yeah, sometimes classmates and teachers think I’m just a model,” she says. “But I know myself—I don’t really care.”

Vicky pulled her own weight through those four years by herself. “I’d be studying while getting my make-up done. I would have shoots, then right after, I’d go have my Philo orals. That’s how intense it was,” she says. “But it never occurred to me that it was impossible.”

Severino Sarmenta, Communication Department Chair and Vicky’s professor in Events and Public Relations classes, remembers her as the hardworking,  headstrong girl who knew what she wanted and did all she could to get things done.

“Vicky’s strength is [in] the way she would evaluate the situation, and then let herself shine,” he says, referring to an attitude that allowed her to keep a transcript clean of anything lower than Bs.

This doesn’t mean she was the typical nerd either. Her thesis partners Christel Boncan and Erika Tapalla attest to the good times they had even despite the thesis semester.

“Our ‘adventures’ were really more like cheap thrills—wearing drag queen headdresses or masks while writing papers, riding the scary tricycles to Starbucks or National Bookstore, hosting wild parties that exhibit juvenile fun,” says Erika.

Even with packed days (“School-thesis-meetings at the club-event-thesis-sleep—oh, and please insert ‘eat’ all the time,” according to Erika), the trio were still able to ace their last senior requirement.

“It was good that we were friends and thesis mates,” says Christel. “We’d mix our personal lives and work and it didn’t feel like a chore at all.”

Where to now?

Though she has interviewed bigwigs like Katy Perry and Fafi, hosted for Arnel Pineda and Journey—“I was so scared, my heart was beating!”—and closed issue after magazine issue, Vicky considers herself lucky that she never took opportunities for granted.

“Vicky was never the type to grab the limelight. She didn’t want the spotlight to be on her,” says Sarmenta. “Now that it’s on her, I think she’s finding that it’s not so hot. She’s okay with it. It didn’t go to her head.”

Her friends’ prediction? “In a year or so, she could be doing another thing and still be good at it,” says Christel. “I say in five years, she’ll just be a bigger and greater force to reckon with but she’ll still keep her feet on the ground.”

So what is next in store for her?

Who knows? Even Vicky doesn’t.

“Last year, I just graduated and didn’t do anything yet,” she says. And just look at where she is now. “I think of life as a hallway where there’s so many doors. You just have to keep on opening them. You don’t stop. That’s why I can honestly say I did not imagine myself today like how I was last year.”

What she does know—and what can be expected of her—is that she will keep opening another one of life’s doors, saying a resounding “Yes!” in her head, and doing what she does naturally—being the best in what she sets her heart on.