JILLIAN Ward is no doubt the top teen star at the Kapuso Network today. Her past show, “Prima Donnas”, rated so high that it had a Part 2. And now, her current Afternoon Prime drama series, “Abot Kamay na Pangarap”, has been on the air for more than a year and is still going strong.

Jillian is so talented as she not only sings well but also acts well. Her portrayal of her role as the young doctor, Annalyn Santos, in “Abot Kamay na Pangarap”, is getting raves from viewers.

We ourselves initially thought she might not be totally credible in her role as a young physician as she’s only 17 years old when the show started. But in all fairness to her, she was able to portray her role so well and win the hearts of audiences in the process.

Jillian is one star who we really saw growing up before our very eyes. We remember first meeting her when she was introduced by GMA at the presscon of “Trudis Liit” in 2O1O when she was a 5-year old tot. It was a big hit, so she was quickly given follow up shows, “Jillian, Namamasko Po” and later, “Daldalita”.

Unlike other child stars, Jillian never experienced the so-called awkward stage when she’s transitioning from being a kiddie star to a teenage star. She just kept on acting even as a tween in shows like “Daig Kayo ng Lola Ko”, “Sa Piling ni Nanay”, etc.

Jillian can really now qualify as one of GMA’s top big stars. She has legions of fans and this is the reason why we’re wondering why she was not given a prominent part in the GMA Christmas Station ID.

Of course, the likes of Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera, Barbie Forteza, Bea Alonzo, Dennis Trillo are there. But Jillian, their top teenstar, is missing. She was not even required to make the greeting “Merry Christmas, Mga Kapuso” that all the big GMA stars made on a solo shot each.

Jillian’s edge over other teen stars is that she has maintained a wholesome image. Her counterpart at the rival network is Andrea Brillantes, who also started as a child actress but is now 2O.

We all know that Andrea, at her very young age, has a very colorful lovelife and has already been linked to various teen actors like Grae Fernandez, Seth Fedelin, JK Labajo, Kyle Echarri and the basketball player Ricci Rivero with whom she has a much talked about affair that ended in an unsavory exchange of words and accusations.

And the latest story about Andrea is that she was dragged into the break up of Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla, for which she got a lot of nasty comments from bashers.

Andrea certainly knows how to be talked about as she even went to the barber shop owned jointly by KathNiel in a mall to have her photos taken while she was there, then she sent them to Daniel.

Andrea seems to be basking from all her notoriety and she seems to believe that publicity, whether good or bad, is still publicity. And in direct contrast to her, Jillian has maintained a clean, wholesome and rosy record all throughout her career.

We don’t know who’s really managing her career, but considering the immensity of her popularity at the moment, she should have been a much sought after endorser by now for beauty products as she really looks so lovely and pretty on screen.

We just hope her manager will not jack up her price so high so as not to scare prospective advertisers. And yes, she deserves to have a movie soon.

Hopefully, that action-comedy with Sen. Bong Revilla would push through and it might be a big hit like when Judy Ann Santos did “Isusumbong Kita sa Tatay Ko” with the late Fernando Poe, Jr.

About that proposed project with Zaijan Jaranilla, it would be foolish for her to be paired with him as he’s now more identified in his BL story with Miggy Jimenez. Also, they have no chemistry as Jillian is even bigger with Zaijan. She needs a taller and heftier leading man.