Barbie Forteza Recalls Her Mother’s Yema Business and Her Father’s Work As Tricycle Driver

As they say, don’t underestimate the power of small businesses. No business is too small if it provides for your family’s needs. There have been many people whose lives were changed thanks to their small businesses. Nanay Bebe’s popular magic water, for example, enabled her to pay for her children’s education. This also holds true for Barbie Forteza, who admitted to living a humble life with her mother working on their yema and pastillas business and her father driving a tricycle.

Barbie Forteza Recalls Her Mother's Yema Business and Her Father's Work As Tricycle Driver
Image by Barbie Forteza via Facebook

It’s truly heartwarming to see big celebrities reflect on how their humble beginnings shaped their outlook and mindset in life. Barbie’s parents’ dedication and hard work encouraged her to dream big and keep going.

Before she made a name for herself as a popular Kapuso star, Barbie was once a simple girl living a humble life. In an interview with Karen Davila via her YouTube channel, Barbie shared that her father worked as a tricycle driver while her mother made boxes for their family’s yema business when she was young.

She said, “Yung daddy ko nga po tricycle driver dati, ‘yung nanay ko, may family business po kasi kami na yema and pastillas, tapos si mama ‘yung gumagawa ng kahon.” [I didn’t grow up in a comfortable family. My father was a tricycle driver, while my mother works in our family’s yema and pastillas business making boxes.]

Despite their humble upbringing, Barbie stated that they always had enough, and her parents never forced or asked her to become a celebrity in order to change their lives.

“To be completely honest, I am really thankful for my parents for this dahil ginusto kong maging artista; hindi nila sinabi na, ‘Nak mag-artista ka dahil kailangan natin ng pang extra.’ Never nilang ipinaramdam sa amin ni ate na kailangan naming tumulong sa kanila. Ito gusto ko talaga,” she said.

She decided to take care of her parents and stop them from working now that she is earning well as a celebrity, especially with the success of her recent show, GMA’s Maria Clara at Ibarra.

“Pinatigil ko na po ‘yung parents ko na magtrabaho. Nu’ng medyo umokey-okey na po ‘yung income, sabi ko hindi na kailangan, kasi kaya ko naman,” she said.

There have been many stories of how small businesses helped change their families’ lives for the better. If you want to venture into business, you can look into the businesses you can start with your family.

You can watch the vlog via Karen Davila’s Youtube channel:

Sally Mae

Leave a Comment

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.