Pussycat Doll Asia Nitollano Article

BRONX CHEER
PUSSYCAT' WINNER ESCAPED SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS
By Deborah Starr Seibel

May 6, 2007 -- It would take more than reality television to scare Asia Nitollano. After all, the 19-year-old winner of the CW's "Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll" grew up in the Bronx. "Nobody understands what I went though, just as a female," says Nitollano, who had a rough time at Lehman High School. "Where I was raised wasn't a 'Brady Bunch' environment."

Nitollano, who's been dancing since the age of four (Latin, jazz, hip hop), says she was ostracized for being different. "I had to watch my back," she says. "There was a lot of hate and jealousy because I was a good singer and a good dancer. And I looked different from all the other girls because I'm mixed: Black, Puerto Rican and Filipino."

Things got so bad that in her junior year, Nitollano, pregnant, transferred to Pelham Preparatory Academy, a private school. "Which was the best thing that ever happened to me," she says. "It was a smaller school and the people there were really supportive."

Nitollano, who now lives in Mount Vernon, showed that same kind of generosity to her fellow competitors on the show. When the other girls were struggling with complicated choreography, Nitollano stepped in to help.

"I'm not the type to keep to myself and think, 'If I help her she's going to be better than me.' If the girl's better than me, then she's better than me. I still have to maintain who I am as a human being, first."

So now she's waiting to hear about her recording and touring schedule with The Pussycat Dolls. And her mother is ready to step in to help care for her two-year daughter, Thais.

"She's my number one priority," says Nitollano. "When I first auditioned in New York, I thought, 'If they have a problem with it, then the job is not for me.' But they seemed to love the fact that I'm a single mom who's still pursuing her dreams." It doesn't hurt that she was given an undisclosed cash prize for winning the show. How much? "That's private," she says. "But it's more money than I've ever seen."

source : http://www.nypost.com/seven/05062007/tv/bronx_cheer_tv_deborah_starr_seibel.htm