Becoming Kween Yasmin: How Loss Gave Rise To A Supernova

(SPOT.ph) Yasmin Marie Asistido, 23, known on the internet as Kween Yasmin, rose to her throne like any other royal: via death.

Her eyes well up as she recalls this. On the morning of November 27, 2018, before leaving for school, Yasmin learns through a phone call that her mother had died. Prior to her death, which was due to liver failure, Mariflor Malixi Asistido led a free-spirited, nomadic life. After leaving her daughters to her parents when Yasmin was only 2, Mariflor came home only a few times a year. Growing up, Yasmin saw her mother only scarcely. Now, she never will.

How does a teenager grieve the death of a parent she barely spent time with?

Yasmin confronted this question over the coming months. Knowing they will never be together again, she locked herself in her bedroom and filled the gaping void her mother left by doing something that always brought her immense joy: belting her heart out.  She's not the first to grieve this way, for sure. Everyone sings in their solitude, or misery. But not everyone will record their performance—off-key and without a goal to please anyone but herself—upload it online, and build a million-strong following.

'Ganyan ba talaga siya?'

If there's an Asia's Songbird, Kween Yasmin is called "Asia's Songbook." She's had a few other monikers given to her by fans but it is that which caught on (some people will say she sounds better than Anne Curtis, and like Mariah Carey, she has a whistle register which she unleashes with a pro’s comedic timing). And then there's “Kween”, of course, a nod to her unrivaled versatility, not to mention her enviable social cachet.

She has a following of nearly 500K on Facebook, 200K on YouTube, and 370K on TikTok, with a jaw-dropping like count of 10.2 million.

“Sobrang natutuwa po ako sa sa mga followers ko po na napapagaan ko po yung mga buhay nila,” she tells SPOT.ph in a cafe in Parañaque not far from where she lives. “I didn’t expect it na all over the Philippines po [ang mga fans ko po]. Kung wala po sila, wala po ako sa kinatatayuan ko sa ngayon.”

She has appeared on TV shows (she's currently in the primetime action serye Black Rider), has been a subject of a Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho feature, and her breakup with her security guard boyfriend was covered by the Philippine Daily Inquirer as if she's Page Six material. Word has it she soon will star in her first movie. 

Kween Yasmin’s allure is a refreshing deviation from the standard created by model-thin influencers who have embraced editing tools, beauty filters, cosmetic surgery, weight loss injectables and glutathione drips. She is short—only about 5 feet—and charmingly plump. She bounces in front of a camera, and her big, round eyes glimmer when she smiles. Her wardrobe is eclectic and maximalist: crewneck shirts and blazers in all the colors of the rainbow, with beaded necklaces, as well as bright yellow ducks, flowers, and lightning bolts on springs, arranged meticulously on her head like a crown. Much like what she's wearing today. 

“Sa likod ng kamera, iniisip ng mga tao, natural lang ba siya kumilos, ganyan ba talaga siya? Tapos malalaman nila na natural lang talaga siya, ganun lang talaga siya magsalita,” said Kween Yasmin, explaining the enigma that is herself. 

Like any star, Yasmin knows her value, and as such has a set of parameters before accepting an invitation for a performance, or a mere appearance. Her talent fee is now in the six-figure range and why not? She is a one-woman empire: she is a singer, meme queen, endorser, influencer and, most recently, spoken word artist (though one might argue that her work is more appropriately categorized as a parody of the spoken word form).

What most people don’t comprehend is the extent of power Kween Yasmin actually holds. “Kween has created an image of herself online where she is someone who is child-like, a good girl, and she has hundreds of thousands of followers who are on her side,” says Lord Malvar. “In the wrong hands, that power can actually be dangerous.”

(Malvar was still Yasmin's manager at the time of this interview. She is now "self-managed," she announced on her Facebook last June 10. Yasmin has switched managers five times over a period of six years, and once prematurely terminated a five-year contract with talent management behemoth Viva Artists Agency.)

Malvar took on the role of being Yasmin's manager only this year, after first being a fan and then a friend privy to Yasmin’s woes regarding her previous managers. His talent, whom he fondly calls Min, initially offered the same percentage her previous managers took—50%—but Malvar insisted on a much smaller share. After a long period of contemplation, he quit a stable day job in corporate, turned down a promotion, and took on the role of the internet star's full-time manager.

While managing Yasmin, Malvar's job description included managing business transactions and helping her ward weed out men who might take advantage of her (Kween Yasmin has quite a sad dating history). “Para akong nagka-anak,” he quipped. But through his management, Kween Yasmin has taken on out-of-town gigs and has flown on an airplane for the first time.

Her career, no doubt, is soaring.

Growing up middle class, independent

“Yasmin is a natural performer,” her aunt Liza Malixi, now the closest thing to a parental figure, says with immense pride. “Her being a performer is inherent.”

Malixi recalls Yasmin’s childhood with a glimmer in her eyes. Like most middle-class Filipino kids, she says, Yasmin was raised by a yaya and watched local television, learning to bust out Otso-otso moves at family reunions to collect crisp purple bills. On Sundays, she sang at church as part of the children’s ministry—her first foray into performing onstage. 

She was a good student, independent. “Never siyang humingi ng tulong sa amin para sa assignments,” Malixi recounts. At one point, Yasmin even received a medal for academic excellence.

“Dati po nung sa school tahimik lang po ako, pero pag may recitation naman, nagrerecite po ako,” Yasmin recalls. 

“Si Yasmin, achiever siya,” Malixi says. “Kung may areas na weakness niya, binabawi niya in other aspects.”

In high school, for example, to ace Chemistry, Yasmin created a system to memorize the periodic table. She clustered three elements at a time—one, Hydrogen; two, Helium; three, Lithium—and recited each cluster in repeated succession. To this day, she can recite all the elements in the periodic table—all 118 of them—like she was just cutting her nails.

Years later, this relentless pursuit to accomplish things translates to Kween Yasmin’s work. She's a self-taught video editor, and spends a considerable time researching, watching other vloggers and influencers for a minimum of three hours per day. She also has an uncanny instinct for knowing what her audience wants, and strategizes her content and posting time according to her audience's behavior. 

“Nilaro ko po nang nilaro [yung pagkanta ko] kasi gusto ng mga tao,” she explains. “Pero okay naman po ako kumanta. Nae-enjoy ko din po para po makalimutan ko din po yung mga sama ng loob sa personal na buhay ko po.”

Kween Yasmin says she's most creative during the early morning, just before dawn. “Pag may naisip po akong concept, minsan madaling araw ko po nahi-hit po, kasi pag po umaga or tanghali sobrang ingay,” she adds. 

'Esophagus, esophagus'

Last year, comedian James Caraan invited Kween Yasmin to guest on The Koolpals podcast after meeting her briefly at a shoot. Her ode to the esophagus, a spur-of-the-moment spoken word performance, reached peak virality and made the episode one of the most popular to date. This latest reinvention has validated Kween Yasmin's reputation as an “All-Purpose Kween”.

“Nung ino-observe ko si Yasmin, nakita ko kagad kung gaano siya ka-genuine. Dun ako na-fascinate,” says Caraan. “Yung personality niya ganun na talaga on- and off-cam. Unfiltered yung sinasabi, tapos nakakatawa, talagang natural.”

“Importante sa isang standup comedian na maging komportable sa sarili niyang balat at sa sarili niyang flaws,” he adds. “Kapag tungtong mo kasi sa stage, ikaw lang ang makikita ng audience… wala silang ibang distraction. So bubuo sila sa utak nila ng prejudice sayo. Kailangan, ma-disarm mo yung prejudice ng tao.” 

Caraan doesn’t categorize Kween Yasmin as a comedian but her humor, he says, contains elements of successful standup acts: rhythm, noteworthy storytelling, emphasis. He explains Yasmin’s unique pull: “Ang pwede natin ma-consider, yung sincerity at genuineness as something na pwede magkaroon ng following. Reaction siya ng society sa masyado nang nagiging peke ang mundo. Sa social media, andaming retokado, andaming fake, andaming for the views lang, pero may isang taong dumating na gusto niya lang videohan sarili niya kahit wala siya sa tono. Wala siyang pakialam sa sasabihin ng iba." 

Keeping her mother's spirit alive

Kween Yasmin has gone through a lot. She carries with her the burden of her mother's history, itself a tragic story.

According to Malixi, at 18, her older sister Mariflor pieced together evidence that she was adopted. Their parents, however, who treated her just like their biological child, denied this. This caused Mariflor to develop feelings of anger and anxiety, which led her to rebel. She got pregnant, was forced to marry her boyfriend, and had another baby, which was Yasmin. Shortly after Yasmin was born, however, Mariflor’s marriage disintegrated. She fell in love with someone new but the affair descended into another tragedy: she got pregnant, whisked the baby off to Canada care of the dad who never returned. 

Unfortunately for Mariflor, during the ‘90s, response to these kinds of trauma was taboo. Mental health was not as widely discussed as it is today. At the mercy of her wandering spells, Mariflor, too, ran away. 

Mariflor isn’t the only one who departed from Kween Yasmin’s life. “While Yasmin was growing up, nawawala yung father figures niya,” Malixi explained. “Her own father left them, my long-time partner and I parted ways, and then her grandfather passed away. I can sense that she seeks that father figure.”

But these triggering life events have not made Kween Yasmin bitter or resentful. If anything, they’ve only made her a more compassionate human being. When she dropped out of school after a semester in her Bachelor of Multimedia Arts program, following an incident of bullying, Malixi surmised a deeper reason: “Si Yasmin, she’s very sensitive when it comes to what we are going through. Alam niya na financially challenged kami kasi yung ate niya, hindi rin nakakapag-work then yung naging asawa, construction worker, so lulubog-lilitaw yung trabaho. So nag-start na siya maging masigasig sa pagiging social media influencer niya.”

Kween Yasmin says: “I do these things because of my mom. Kasi kung nabubuhay pa yung mama ko, sana nararanasan din niya yung mga blessings na natatanggap ko araw-araw.” She doesn’t say it but there is regret in her eyes.

One could say Kween Yasmin is keeping her mother's spirit alive by mirroring her act of rebellion, by defying societal expectations and carving her own path—peoples’ comments be damned. She helps people defeat loneliness: the help her mother needed but never properly received, the help the world desperately needs.

The transfer of power transcends death. As the saying goes: Long live the Kween.