It’s impossible to miss Tessa Prieto-Valdes in a crowd. You’ll spot her immediately, even if there are hundreds of people milling about. She's the lady wearing the most outrageous, colorful outfit, complete with a perfectly paired headpiece, and with an equally sunny disposition to boot.

Tessa’s best accessory, however, would always be her bright smile. This woman enjoys dressing up, and she derives her larger-than-life confidence from it. Her trick? She focuses on the people who genuinely appreciate her. “I used to mind [the bashers], especially people who say that I’m weird or that I dress really crazy. But I don’t know who they are, and they’re not that important to me, so I don’t mind them,” she told FN during the opening of the Adidas concept store at Bonifacio High Street.

Here are a few more of Tessa’s confidence secrets:

1. Take care of your body.
“Be comfortable with your body,” says Tessa, who loves joining triathlons. Keeping healthy and well-rested can also give you an instant confidence boost.

2. Make a trademark.
“Always project an image that people can automatically associate with you,” Tessa says. Her signature style has definitely helped catapult her into the spotlight.

3. Surround yourself with great people.
“It’s always good to be around a lot of friends,” Tessa advises. “It’s more fun to come to a party with lots of friends as opposed to coming to a party alone.”

4. Look at the bright side of life.
“A positive, happy disposition always helps,” shares Tessa. “I always look at life half-full instead of half-empty... For every negative energy [around you], there’s always a positive energy. So you just harness the positive energy.”

5. Accept that you can’t make everybody happy.
“I realized that people who compliment you would not go out of their way to say a kind word, but people who have something bad to say will bother themselves to openly express how negatively they feel,” Tessa says. “You can’t please everybody. You were not born here into this world to please everybody. You just have to please yourself and the people you care most.”

(Photo courtesy of PEP.ph)