More News

The sisters volunteer at a women’s homeless shelter, earn good grades and play sports.

However, when they began acting two years ago, industry pressure briefly encroached on their happy family.

Sabrina was the sister who first began pestering her mother, Jazzlyn, 42, for acting classes. She wanted — and still wants — to be an actress.

Rockzana was only tagging along. But she quickly won her first role, as a crying child in a domestic violence public service announcement.

‘‘I didn’t exactly think it would get very far,” Rockzana said.

As Rockzana racked up voiceover parts, commercials and modeling photo shoots, her sister became jealous. The duo went to casting calls together, and they often had to compete for parts.

‘‘We each wanted to win,” Rockzana said, but she was the one who got the Spanish-language voiceover part for Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer.

Their mother said the pressures of managing her daughters’ budding careers helped turn her into a ‘‘stage mom.”

‘‘I wanted them to get every single role,” she said. ‘‘When they came out of an audition, I would ask them what they did and say, ‘Why’d you do that?’”

The pressures mounted as the sisters received more audition calls.

At first, Baltimore seemed far to travel for an audition. Then it was Philadelphia. Then New York City.

Eventually, their acting coach, Sareva Racher, put things into perspective for the Floreses’ mother. She reminded Jazzlyn Flores and the two sisters that acting is a business and sometimes casting choices are arbitrary.

‘‘Once I started seeing what the moms they were casting looked like, it really brought home what she was saying. Advertising people and casting directors have in their minds how a kid should look,” Jazzlyn Flores said. ‘‘And if your kid doesn’t look that way, they won’t get the job.”

The sisters adapted their outlook to the highly competitive business. While they admitted to still having jealous moments and natural sibling rivalry, they try to be supportive.

Sabrina recently finished a one-day shoot for a speaking part, as ‘‘Pakistani Girl” in the upcoming Nicole Kidman thriller ‘‘The Invasion.” Though her sister had been winning the most parts, she was the first to land a movie role.

‘‘That made me feel better,” she said.

‘‘She got a trailer, and she only had one word!” Rockzana shouted indignantly, through a smile.

The award they receive Sunday honors them for maintaining a healthy outlook and well-balanced life outside of the studio. The Child Actor Recognition Event is an annual award ceremony sponsored by the BizParentz Foundation, a nonprofit created to advocate for child performers.

This year’s child actor honoree, who exemplifies the wholesome kid star, will be 1990s teen heartthrob Joey Lawrence.

Co-founder Anne Henry said she started the awards program because she thought Hollywood’s kid-star casualties were contributing to a false image of child acting.

‘‘Compared to the numbers of kids who actually work in this industry, that [number] is miniscule,” she said of troubled stars. ‘‘The few bad apples were really ... giving all the rest of us a bad reputation, to the extent that legislators were willing to pass [child actor] laws.”

The award program is non-competitive. Awardees are chosen if they can prove entertainment industry employment, a B-grade average in core classes like math and English, and community service or other extracurricular activities.

Actors’ parents must submit a quiz, which Henry said is aimed at getting parents to reflect on how the industry might be affecting their child.

There are 23 sets of siblings receiving the award this year, of about 180 total awardees.

The Flores sisters are the only award winners from the mid-Atlantic region. They said they are not nervous about walking the red carpet in front of paparazzi.

As they prepared for their trip, in their bedroom with Disney characters painted on the walls, they said the business is worth it.

Sabrina, the quieter of the two girls, said she loves the emotional acrobatics of acting. ‘‘You get to express your feelings,” she said.

‘‘I like how you can be somebody different, whether it’s an animal or a wizard,” Rockzana said.