From chubby to feisty, 12-year-old teen actress, Bea Binene aspires to compete in the Olympics some day.

While teenagers her age are biding their time dolling up ala Hannah Montana or swooning over Edward Cullen, teen actress Bea Binene, 12, is busy perfecting her fluid stances, kicks, and jumps in the Chinese martial arts, wushu. Barely in her teens, Bea has come to understand the very beauty and essence of the sport – not only is it training for the mind and body, wushu is training for life.

Bea started her showbiz career in the talent search, StarStruck Kids, and has since appeared in various TV shows including hosting a segment in the GMA News and Public Affairs show, "Lovely Day." People might recognize her as Love Anover’s chubby-cheeked co-host, but that was six years ago. Now, Bea is a svelte teenager with a pretty face that can rival “tween” models and as much spunk as a young Zhang Ziyi. 

“I first learned about wushu when I was seven. A wushu artist was on the set of "Lovely Day" to play a villain for one of our segments and I was in awe of his talent. He was using a straight sword while doing splits, aerial moves, and stances. I was like, ‘Wow! Gusto ko rin gawin yan!’” she narrated.

Bea eagerly looked for a Wushu training center shortly after that, but it was only until March of last year did she find Wushu Discovery Chinese Martial Arts Training Center, her current team, where she’s being trained by former wushu world champion, Mark Robert Rosales.

Wushu is composed of two disciplines: taolu or forms and sanda or sparring. Bea is currently training for taolu comprised of basic movements like stances, kicks, punches, balances, jumps, sweeps, and throws. She has recently competed at the 2010 National Wushu Championships held at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum where she took home a bronze medal for her san lu quan routine.  

“Winning that medal was worth all the strenuous trainings and sore muscles. Before, my interest in wushu was fueled by both fascination and a desire to lose weight,” she quipped. “But now, after the nationals, I’m striving to fill our wall with medals and awards.”

Surely, training for wushu is not for the weak. Bea shared that their training usually starts with a 10-round jog, stretches, then working on their basic kicks and jumps. It’s the perfect exercise with quick results but just like any form of martial arts, one must commit to it first.

 “When I wasn’t busy with tapings, I used to train every day, Monday to Saturday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. After two months I went from a 31-inch waistline to 24-and-a-half. I lost all that pounds without dieting. That’s the number one rule in wushu. You must make sure to eat a lot. You’ll need all the energy for the training,” she said.

Another cool thing about wushu is that it doesn’t have ranks or belts like karate; it’s a never-ending cycle of learning. It can be practiced by kids as young as six or by adults as old as seventy. In China, wushu is part of the people’s everyday exercise. They do it in parks, gyms, and even at home. So it’s not merely a sports thing.

But the road to wushu wasn’t entirely easy for the young actress, “I can’t remember how many times I cried out, ‘Ayoko na!’. It was really so hard. My mom would get really mad when I come home with bruises. But for some reason, I keep coming back. It’s almost like a love-hate relationship with the sport. At the end of the day, when you put your heart into something, there’s no such thing as giving up.”

Before wushu, Bea playfully admitted that her only sport was eating. She wasn’t a very active kid. She didn’t know she had it in her to compete in a national championship. But she did. And she was good at it. “Probably two of the best things I learned from wushu are self-confidence and self-discipline. Shedding the baby fat was just a plus,” she said smiling.