Six-year-old Victoria Garcia lives in a Hannah Montana world.
Like many girls her age, she wears T-shirts and tights plastered with the Disney star's face. She knows all her songs. And her recent birthday party was all about her teen idol.
When the doorbell rang and her father, Frank Garcia, asked Victoria to answer it, she froze, staring out the glass door at her rock star come to life.
“I heard someone here was having a birthday party!” said the blonde, longhaired teenager in sunglasses, silver-sequin sneakers, gray T-shirt and jeans.
She bounced into the living room, grabbed a microphone and sang to the stunned youngster, lip-synching “Best of Two Worlds.” Victoria chewed on a thumb, her eyes wide.
For 10 months, Skyler Alcalá, 16, has been impersonating Hannah Montana at birthday parties and special appearances on weekends while keeping up with school and cheerleading duties. The McCollum High School junior is part of an army of Miley Cyrus look-alikes wowing little girls across Texas and the nation.
Skyler gets bookings by word of mouth, through fliers and the online classifieds on Craigslist. For $100 an hour she brings her show to living rooms and backyards, with a five-song set and pictures, and poses with the birthday girls.
“One mom cried, ‘You made my little girl's dream come true,'” said Skyler, a longtime fan of the real star. “It touches me a lot that I could do that, just to see the kids' faces and smiles. I just want to be like her and add a little flavor of me also.”
David Tapley, owner of lookalike.com in Dallas, said there are “tons” of Hannah Montana impersonators in Texas, more than in Las Vegas or Los Angeles. Tapley represents three such acts in New York, Los Angeles and Canada.
He said the longevity for Hannah Montana and her impersonators is promising.
“It just depends on how long she stays popular,” Tapley said. “I think she's got a long run ahead of her unless she decides to get married, pregnant and leaves the scene.”
Skyler lives a double life, much like the TV character Miley Stewart, who is secretly teen idol Hannah Montana — both played by Cyrus. It began after her cheerleading choreographer told her she resembled Cyrus and asked her to perform at a fundraiser to send the McCollum squad to last year's national competition.
Her impersonation prompted a teammate to ask her to perform at her little sister's birthday party.
Skyler's grandmother, Doris Navarro, is her biggest fan and has encouraged her to develop an act like Tina Turner and Elvis Presley impersonators in Las Vegas.
Her mom, Michelle Alcalá, who helped shape the show, runs over the song list with her daughter before performances. Her father, Joseph Alcalá, attends the concerts along with her security guards, Justin Trevino, 18, and Joseph Rodriguez, 16, who dance with her during two tunes.
The two proved handy at a back-to-school event at Palo Alto College last month when hundreds of kids swarmed her. She's also done free shows for the children of battered women and for kids with Down syndrome.
On a recent Saturday she played four parties from 3 to 9 p.m. When she arrived home at 10 p.m., she finished an English paper for college credit that was due to an instructor before midnight.
First came a backyard party near Woodlawn Lake. Her mother, grandmother and security guards set up equipment as Skyler practiced the pronunciation of two girls' names and her script.
“I ran into your moms at H-E-B and they said I just had to be here,” she said to cousins Alyssa Joy Rios and Amris Julia Rios, both celebrating their seventh birthdays.
As the music thumped, Skyler's mother and grandmother clapped with the kids and their parents.
“We have Hannah clothes,” Alyssa said as Skyler signed their shirts. “We have you!”
Their mothers, Lenora and Princess Frago, learned about Skyler's act from a neighbor who had booked her earlier in the summer.
“They love it, they're super-happy,” Lenora Frago said, watching Skyler hug the girls and sing “Nobody's Perfect.” “They think she's the real Hannah Montana.”
Victoria Garcia's house was next. When Victoria could finally speak, she asked her dad if Hannah Montana could spend the night.
“I just provided something to my daughter she'll remember the rest of her life,” Frank Garcia said. “That makes it all worth it.”
