“No one calls me Michelle.” Mikki hates her given name and announcing that she doesn’t like it might just be a warning not to call her that. “Michelle for me is very old fashioned. Mikki, I like it, it’s unique. And most of the time kung may kapangalan ako madalas guy so walang kaso sa akin.” Like her name, Mikki believes that she is a unique individual; she is very proud of who she is. “I decided to audition for Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition because I think I am not like a lot of people. I think you should just do what you want, whatever you like yun ang gawin mo. Don’t copy other people kasi para kang pirated niyan.”

A’n aspiring drummer and writer, Mikki remembers being bullied a lot of times in school before. And she tried her hardest to fit in. “When I was in high school I had a barkada, they like to drink, they cut class. They taught me to drink beer for the first time during a lunch break from a lecture where priests were teaching about virtues. When we got back, right in the middle of the talk, I got sick and vomited right in front of the lecturer.” Now she knows how to stand up for herself. And her friends also look up to her.

Mikki describes her Chinese family as something straight out of “Mano Po.” Her grandfather is what you would call a ‘traditional’ Chinese for he left his entire business to his sons and left his daughters out of it. He even came to a point where he almost had his daughters’ betrothed for the sake of business. But after Mikki caught her dad cheating on her mom with his secretary (something she referred to as a real classic story) her lolo came to the family’s rescue and still helps them out to this day. Her mom is studying to be a nurse now and Mikki knows that when graduation day comes, her family’s American dreams will soon be realized. “Everything will fall into place and be ok.” She sees ‘the secretary’ now as the source of her inner strength. “Kasi it’s just not me na inapakan niya, it’s my mom so nagalit talaga ako. It was then that I realized na kaya ko pala eh. I don’t have to cry and runaway.”