The Miseducation of Maggie Wilson

by Dexter Canete

BACOLOD-BORN BEAUTY AND INSANELY POPULAR TV PERSONALITY MAGGIE WILSON TALKS ABOUT GROWING UP AND
STAYING WILD

It took around four years for Margaret Nales Wilson to learn how to become a star. While other girls her age went off to college and earned diplomas to be nurses, accountants or pre-school teachers, she was going through her own education, from sporadic neophyte appearances to a popular reign as a beauty queen.

Today, Maggie is a tough and smart 20-year-old who also happens to be one of the country’s most popular TV personalities. Although her age presupposes a bit of brashness on her part, it’s with the voice of someone with experience that she admits that being occasionally crazy has served her well. For example, ignoring age requirements.

AGE IS ONLY A NUMBER

“It was kinda cool because they hired me without even asking me to do an audition,” Maggie says. When she first joined the MTV VJ Hunt, she didn’t get the job because she was then only 15, three years short of the minimum age requirement.

But the executives liked her so much that when she was about to turn 18, they called her and offered her the job.

Now on her third year with the music channel, she reveals that it hardly feels like work. “I love it. Seriously,” she asserts, as if saying, What’s not to love? She gets paid to go to concerts, parties and all sorts of events around the country. Needless to say, she hopes to still be doing this gig for at least a couple more years.

INDEPENDENT WOMAN

Maggie was born in Bacolod. But only after a few months of her birth, her family moved to Saudi Arabia. They lived there for 13 years.

She then moved back to the country with her sister. “I lived with her for two years,” she says, “and then she moved to Dubai.”

“I started living on my own when I was 16.”  Not only did she start living without adult supervision, she also started supporting herself financially through modeling and shows with GMA Network. “I was scared because I didn’t know how to handle my income,” she admits. “Eventually I got the hang of it. I basically learned the value of working hard to earn.”

“I also learned how to cook,” she smiles.

TATTOO YOU

“I didn’t wanna join at all.”

Maggie admits that she was hesitant, to say the least, about joining the 2007 Bb. Pilipinas pageant. In fact she gave up three times before finally acquiescing. “The idea was my manager’s,” she says. “I felt it wasn’t me. I felt like I was just gonna put on an act for everyone else.”

“I only did it for my mom, my parents and my manager,” she says. “They really, really wanted me to.”

Of course, it didn’t come as a surprise to them when she won. Her reaction: to get a tattoo as soon as she could.

“As soon as I got back from China, from the Miss World, I got the one on my neck,” she says, “I was supposed to get it before. But [the organizers] begged me to do it after.” After getting inked a mere two months after the pageant, she admits that one was far from enough.  ‘They’re so addictive. I have six tattoos,” says Maggie, “I already have designs for my next one.”

WILD AT HEART

With her job practically giving her an all-access pass to concerts and gigs, Maggie got exposed to the local rock scene and, well, rock stars.  “Rock stars were interesting—different lifestyle,” she says. “I learned to drink beer and be a cowboy.” Although she admits she’s dated a few of them, she now says that she has sworn them off. “They’re artists. They have their moods.”

That doesn’t mean she hates them, stresses Maggie. For now, she says she’d like to date guys with “different occupations” and “different likes.” (She laughs at the latter remark.)

Still, she admits that she hasn’t quite learned how to stop going for bad boys. “I still can’t kick off that little crazy side of me.”

She’s mellowed down a lot though. Maggie says: “I’m more responsible now. Now that I’m more mature.” She even sees herself as getting married eventually and starting a family of her own. “I think every person should be with someone—I honestly think that.”

“And I wanna have a baby, spread the genes.’”

Originally published in UNO June 2009 issue