A couple of weeks ago, I was blessed with the opportunity to grace the cover our local newspaper’s weekend special.

It was such a wonderful opportunity to be able to be on the cover of Sun Star magazine because I got to tell my wonderful city about the things I love: working for our family business and blogging. For those who weren’t able to catch the article when it came out, here it is:

 OF WRITING AND WEARING. The bubbly Issa Perez, who keeps the fashion blog http://www.issaplease.com, also runs a garments company that supplies custom- made apparel for schools and companies.

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 Easily Stylish Issa- Issa Perez lights up her world through fashion

By Deneb Batucan

WITH her upbeat demeanor and infectious smile, Issa Perez lights up any room. Her bright and bubbly personality shines through her small frame and eyes lock on her with every step — she greets everyone and plants a kiss on the cheek.

Issa has a knack of doing things her own way. Even though she studied nursing because of her parents’ wishes, her goal has always been into fashion. “Growing up, when people would ask me what I wanted to be, I would always say fashion writer or fashion designer,” she said.

Fast forward to today, Issa, a non- practicing registered nurse who passed the board exam even without reviewing, is creating her own path- just like what she has always planned. And fashion blogging has been her way of proving to herself, to her parents and to everyone else that her future lies in fashion.

Issa was just a 12- year- old girl when she started blogging. “I was in sixth grade at the time and it was just a personal blog or a diary that I kept online. I still keep that blog until now but I don’t advertise it as much as I do for my public blog,” she said.

She started issaplease.com, her publiv blog, five years ago when she felt more confident about herself and in telling others her stories. Not only does she blog about style and fashion, Issa also tries to mix up her content by writing about her travels, food adventures and other random things she finds interesting. “I want my blog to be relatable to people, which is why I talk about the things that matter to me, like my apparent quarter life crisis, friendships, saving tips, make up secrets and anything that I think my readers will like. By being honest with myself and the things I want to talk about, I’ve learned that my readers really do enjoy reading my posts,” she said.

But fashion is one thing that Issa concerns herself more. “For me, fashion is a lot of things. It’s an expression of who you are and at the same time a gateway to who you want to be. It can also be an escape when you’re too tired of being someone everyone expects you to be,” she shared.

Issa loves  to wear loose tops and sneakers- a clear example of who she is: an outgoing, somewhat boyish and sporty kind of woman. But Issa thinks that as a woman she needs to be more feminine. “By playing with my fashion style, I was able to explore that side of me that I wasn’t very familiar with. I was able to mix it with my personal style,” she said.

Aside from being a fashion blogger, Issa is also an entrepreneur. She is the proprietor of Citi Wear Dress Shop, a garments company that supplies custom- made apparel for schools and companies. It was founded in 1998 by Issa’s parents, Cathy and Lander Perez. Tired of working in the US, they opted to start a business here in Cebu to provide a better future for their children.

“I stated working for my parents as early as high school, but I was really able to take full control of the business some time last year when my parents decided they want to go back to the States. We’re preparing for that right now,” Issa confided.

Issa works hard on these two important aspects in her life: fashion blogging and the family business. She wants to see where these two aspects will take her. But what Issa ultimately wants in life is to provide for herself and her family without having to depend on anyone else. “I want to be able to repay my parents for all the sacrifices that they’ve made for me because they’ve put their 100 percent trut in me and my dream, which I know is something that can’t be easily done, especially for an extremely ambitious girl like me,” she shared.

And Issa is indeed ambitious. She wishes for Issaplease.com to go into a more commercial side and wants to try out modeling or even delve into the entertainment scene since it’s something she could see herself doing. She also wants to open up a retail store and try out high fashion. Currently, she’s venturing into vlogging, which is more or less like blogging but in a video platform. “Honestly, everything interests me, so I’ll most likely try everything at least once. I also really want to buy a pug,” she laughingly shared.

These ambitions will most likely be attained with hard work, perseverance and a bit of luck by her side. And with everything that she does, Issa will always have that signature smile- on sunny days and rainy days and even during hurricanes.

Here are a few Behind The Scene photos from our photo shoot:

A big thanks to Alfred Bartoleme, Deneb Batucan and the Hair & Make Up team of Sun Star for this wonderful, once in a lifetime experience!

To more wonderful experiences like this,