 Yiyi McManus, a Lynn resident, is the recipient of the 2008 International Presentation of Performers (iPOP) Acting Audition scholarship and, in addition, she will appear as a guest on the next season of “Wizards of Waverly Place,” the Disney Channel’s original show.Lynn teen receives '08 iPOP scholarship, TV appearance
By Mike Atkinson / For The Item
As an orphan in a welfare institute in China, Yiyi McManus barely knew if she was going to survive to see another day, yet today her sights are set on Hollywood.
Yiyi, a Lynn resident, is the recipient of the 2008 International Presentation of Performers (iPOP) Acting Audition scholarship and, in addition, she will appear as a guest on the next season of "Wizards of Waverly Place," the Disney Channel's original show.
Yiyi, a 2008 graduate of Breed Middle school, received the $20,000 scholarship earlier this month at the annual iPOP convention in Las Vegas, Nev. where she also had the chance to audition in front of agents and casting directors for various shows including Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Scrubs, Entourage, Hannah Montana and Zoey 101.
Ron Patterson, the chairman and president of John Roberts Powers school systems, funded Yiyi's trip to attend the four-day convention in Las Vegas and then, at the conclusion of the convention, presented her with a scholarship that was recently established by the John Robert Powers school system in her name.
"I had no idea that I was receiving the award. I was so excited just to be able to go up on stage and speak in front of the large crowd," Yiyi said of her impromptu speech to nearly 4,000 attendees.
Former Lynn mayor and Yiyi's father, Pat McManus said his 14-year-old daughter did a great job under pressure.
"When she was up on stage she looked like an entirely different kid," he said. "She was so mature."
Yiyi, currently a student at John Robert Powers Boston, was adopted from China by Pat and his wife Debbie when Yiyi was 4-years-old. As an infant, Yiyi was abandoned in Guangzhou, China where she was found in a closet at the Guangzhou hospital with a note saying "We can't take care of her" and a few Chinese dollars pinned to her blanket.
While at the orphanage, Yiyi faced daily hardships that included starvation and beatings that resulted in broken bones. Even after reconstructive surgery to her eardrums, Yiyi still suffers from a slight hearing loss that resulted from a blunt trauma to her head.
"She's had to work 10 times as hard as the average person," said her father. "But she doesn't quit. The word 'no' means nothing to her."
With the help of an American woman who was volunteering at Yiyi's orphanage, Yiyi received daily meals and nurturing for nearly two years. Adding into account what happened to many other kids at the orphanage, Pat McManus credits this woman with saving Yiyi's live.
"About 7 years ago, I received a letter with a photo of a woman holding a young child that looked like Yiyi," he said. "Come to found out, that woman in the photo was the woman who saved Yiyi from the orphanage. A few years back we invited the woman to our house and she spent a week with Yiyi. She is a great woman. It was truly amazing."
When asked how she became interested in modeling, Yiyi credits a Disney Channel movie. Coincidentally, this fall, Yiyi will be in Hollywood guest-staring on a Disney Channel show.
"Since I was six years old I wanted to become a model," she said. "I saw a movie on the Disney channel - 'Model Behavior' - about a young female model and since then I have wanted to model."
Her father has a slightly different memory.
"Yiyi, when she was six, told me that she wanted to get 'nice clothes for free' and have people ask her for autographs," he said.
Once Yiyi started to attend modeling classes at John Robert Powers Boston, she quickly became a child protégé under the watchful eye of Arelen Pedjoe and Barbara Tyler, the owners of the modeling school, who focused on placing the atrocities of Yiyi's past behind her.
Now, Yiyi focuses on using those tough years of her life as an inspiration to other struggling children.
"I model because I would like to go back to China, visit the kids and get them out of the orphanages," she said. "I want to show those kids that they are bigger than they think they are. No one deserves to live like they do in the orphanages. I hope people in China will see what I went through and I hope adults will hear my story and adopt a child of their own."
Pat McManus credits YiYi's teachers with her success.
"The John Robert Powers School in Boston, Ron Paterson and iPOP have been great to Yiyi," he said, recalling Yiyi running on stage when he would deliver speeches as mayor. "When I was mayor of Lynn and doing a lot of public speaking, she would follow me on stage and grab the mike. She's always been very composed and very comfortable in front of a crowd."
In September, Yiyi and her family will be traveling to Hollywood for a week to meet with agents from "Wizards of Waverly Place" and then in January Yiyi will move to Hollywood for four months to do tapings of the television show. She has already appeared in commercial print advertising campaigns and Houghton Mifflin textbooks, and was featured in a live television broadcast, airing in China and New York.
"I love acting and modeling because you get to play out the different emotions in a lot of characters," Yiyi said. "In the end, I am still me but I get to play someone else."
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