Child stars in the early throes of puberty

ZAIJIAN Jaranilla (right) has a tentative, innocent “crush” on Andrea Brillantes in the show.

Our recent column on child stars’ strong and even dominant position on the teleserye scene elicited perceptive feedback from readers, some of whom fretfully wondered what would happen to adolescents and tweens, once the inevitable onset of puberty made its paradigm-changing presence felt. Good question!

These days, that quixotic query is best exemplified by Zaijian Jaranilla’s “case”: A popular child star for more than six or seven years, he’s already in the early stages of puberty, so his roles are being subtly and smartly tweaked to still get more mileage out of his career, despite the physical changes that are beginning to manifest themselves.

Enforced leave

The mere fact that he’s still playing juvenile lead roles on TV at this point is already a big shift from standard industry practice, which used to require child talents to go on enforced leave from acting for three or four years—and after puberty had done its “worst,” to resurface as teen stars starting hopefully a new chapter in their stellar careers.

With Zaijian and a few other popular child talents, however, the riskier but more potentially productive option is to keep them on-camera, but to gradually adjust their portrayals to allow for the “puberty factor” to make its presence felt.

Thus, in Zaijian’s current drama series, “Hawak Kamay,” his character is slowly getting smitten with Iza Calzado’s newly-revealed daughter, Andrea Brillantes.

Nothing eekily gushy, you understand, just the early stages of an innocent crush manifesting itself so that viewing parents don’t fretfully disapprove!

Recently, to add to the “tween-romantic” blush, a new, 13-year-old character has been added in the person of “The Voice Kids” finalist Juan Karlos Labajo, who is being positioned as Zaijian’s potential “rival” for Andrea’s innocent heart—not right now, of course—but, maybe tomorrow?

It’s all very subtle and even skittish as the show is gingerly testing the waters of viewers’ reactions before adding to the “preromantic” coloration of the three tween talents’ scenes.

In fact, Juan Karlos’ character has been made to resolutely declare that he couldn’t possibly think of Andrea “that way,” because she happens to be his best friend!

Worried parents must have been relieved to hear that early disclaimer—but they should also realize that “tomorrow” could turn out to be slightly different!

As for Zaijian’s character, he’s clearly smitten but he’s being kept “innocent” for now—another big relief for viewing parents, who know all too well how fervently their own tween kids are predisposed to ape their TV faves!

Yes, it’s far too early for everyone to take young love and even crushes seriously because there’s grade school to focus on—but the seeds have been planted.

It isn’t clear if they will be allowed to grow into wee seedlings before “Hawak Kamay” ends its storytelling, but we’re quite sure that Zaijian’s next teleserye will take the next step and more forthrightly go into crushes and such.

Exceptionally innocent

One factor that’s keeping Zaijian stay on-cam in early puberty is the fact that he’s still physically small—and his exceptionally innocent, childlike eyes have generally not been compromised by tween or teen “knowing-ness” (on the other hand, the bigger and more porma Juan Karlos is clearly a clueless kid no longer).

But the time will come, all too soon, for Zaijian to take the next big “tween” step in his acting career, and we hope that the shift continues to be done so subtly and smartly that he and his handlers will be able to get away with it!