"You Can't Leave News"
"I was absolutely miserable. And my therapist encouraged me, like, it sounds like you need to take a sabbatical. And I was like, you can’t leave news.”
As a 10-year industry vet, Jasmine Styles has lived the highs and lows of the news industry. Styles started at a station in Columbia, South Carolina, where she made less per paycheck than would cover her rent and, looking back, says he was experiencing depression. Far from family and barely making ends meet, Styles was struggling.
Her third station landed her in Tampa, Florida, where she found herself working with a photog who had a track record of “taking things out on young people, people of color, and women, and I was all three.” It was in Tampa that Styles began learning how to stand up for herself in a newsroom and how to balance personal and professional life. This included finding a therapist to address her mental health concerns. While partly due to work, she credits a fight with her best friend as the way she identified her mental health and behaviors as being “off.”
When it was time to take the next step, she thought she was set to land a role in her dream market, only to be passed over. She says it was a blessing in disguise. Today, Styles is an evening news anchor in Cincinnati, Ohio. While she says she landed the “dream role,” an anchor with a 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. schedule, Styles found her mental health crumbling.
“I was absolutely miserable. And my therapist encouraged me, like, it sounds like you need to take a sabbatical. And I was like, you can’t leave news,” Styles said. Yet, after further consideration and discussing it with the station’s general manager, she applied for a sabbatical through the Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA. After evaluations with her therapist, psychologist, and approval from management, Styles was approved for two months off with partial pay. It was this time that Styles says is what kept her in the news industry.
Styles is adamant that everyone should take a sabbatical at some point during their career, maybe even twice. Yet, more than anything, she is passionate about journalists standing up for themselves in the news industry. Whether it be advocating for higher pay, better time off, better equipment, or a positive work environment, Styles doesn’t hold back when it comes to discussing the issues the news industry carries.
Listen to the first half of Jasmine’s no-holds-barred interview here:
Part two is coming soon!
Jasmine Styles:
My name is Jasminee Styles. I'm a TV business vet of ten years going on eleven. I think… yikes, and I am the evening anchor for WCPO9 in Cincinnati.
Molly Casey:
What inspired you to get into journalism?
Jasmine Styles:
That's always a fun question because I never knew I wanted to do journalism. I wanted to be a chemist. I remember, for a third-grade project I had my little science set and I wanted to be a chemist. But your girl is trash at math, so that wasn't going to happen. And, so it was funny because I went to Florida State. My mom went to Florida State, too. Um, and when we were at orientation, I was like, “I guess I’ll just do business, because like that's what people do?” And my mom is a former business major. So, we're in there and they're talking economics. They're talking accounting. I'm just like “it's a, it’s a no for me, dog. So, I like found the counselor and she was like, “you could always just be like undeclared.” And so I was like, I'm told my mom like I'm just going undeclared. She was like. “What does that mean? Like what? What are you going to do?” And was like “I don’t know I'll figure it out. I'm in college. I did the hard part. I just got to figure out what I’m going to do.” And so freshman year I got on campus and I was just study, study, study because I used to have so many extracurriculars in high school, but I just - you know, I'm new on campus. I don't know anything, and I'm like I'll just focus on my studies for now and find things to do. So Florida State actually owns a PBS station or they have some type of partnership with it. I don't know. I always say that, but that could be wrong. Um, and they sent up like a cattle call to basically do a glorified announcement called University Update. And I was like I used to do TV production in middle school, like that sounds fun. And so I answered the call. We had to do a research test first, Like to make sure you could fact find. And then if you pass the research test, that would bring you in for the whatever, and I mean not to toot my own horn or anything. But I did do like the book reports for like Orange County public schools, and I had already read a prompter by like third grade. So, I was like, you know, no big deal. I can do this and I went and did it and the lady was like, “Oh, my gosh, you were our last one and you are our best one.” And I was like, “Yeah, that’s great.” And she is a former like T V news person. So like I worked with her and she was just like, “I really think you should do this” and I'm like “Well, Florida State doesn't have a J school. So what do I do?” And she was like “Well, Actually FAMU does.” And Florida A&M university, which is a historically black college in Florida State are literally, we say, across the train tracks. It takes five minutes to get from one campus to the other, depending on where you are. So I signed up for classes there, and that's how I was able to do journalism and it just so happened that it worked out for me like I've always been a big English buff. I love reading. I love writing. Those are the like - standardized testing. I always scored the highest on, so I definitely had a love for English and words. I was always the girl who was the team leader who was like made to present. You know, so it made sense. I just didn't - I guess when I was younger, I just didn't think that that was like a job. Like You know, you've seen news people all the time. Some of these news people I watched are still in Orlando. But it didn't occur to me that I could be a news person. So ,it worked out.
Molly Casey:
When you first took your first journalism side - job outside of school. What do you wish you had known before you stepped into that role?
Jasmine Styles:
Oh my God, I wish I would have known... I don't think that we got the dose of how intense this field was until like late in the game like senior year. I feel like they need to have a very real conversation with the sophomores, because when- once you're a sophomore, you can qualify to communications, which then qualifies you to go to the co-op program. So I feel like they should’ve been like, “Look, you ain't gonna get Christmas. You ain't gonna get Thanksgiving, you're going to be poor.” Like run it down so that kids really understand what they're going to get. But that's like one of my big pet peeves with it - the Journalism industry. Especially in teaching. A lot of those teachers haven't stepped foot inside a newsroom in twenty, thirty, four years, if they were news people at all. And so I'm like you're telling me you know what - you know they were talking about. like, “Oh, I would be the janitor if I had to,” and I'm like that's the worst thing you could ever tell a - a person, because most TV people like our jobs like aren't gonna - like if you want to be a producer, you need to want to be a producer. You don't want to be a producer who's trying to be a reporter, because they might not take you seriously, or you'll just be sitting and waiting for a job that's never gonna come. So yeah, I just felt like I had no idea how hard it was going to be. Luckily, I wasn't super far from my family. I was in Columbia, South Carolina, and all my family was in Orlando, Florida. Still a seven-hour trip, but you know much more doable than like where I am now in Ohio. Um, so I feel like I wish I would have known how hard it was going to be because I was lonely. I was poor. I was um, you know, I guess I was probably lowkey, like homesick slash depressed. But of course, like you don't know that you're just thinking like this is how it is and you know I'm crying to - I call her my news mama. I'm crying to my news Mama like, “bro, I can't do this.” They would do breaking news and I would go hide in the bathroom. That's how scared I was at that point. Like, which is crazy now because if this is like breaking news I’m like, “ooh! Me! Let's go.” But I was so scared because I just didn't -I didn't feel like I knew enough from my schooling like because you can't get real world experience in the classroom you just can't like - nothing can duplicate the news experience. And just - even if you're in an internship, you just don't know until you're in it. And so I feel like I wish I would have done maybe a little bit more shadowing to really understand and get somebody who is going to give me the real-real on like what I was going to experience.
Molly Casey:
Talk about the challenges that came with that first market or even the first few markets. Heck, even now with how low the pay is. I remember, I freaked out every single month about how I was going to make rent, how I was going to buy groceries, how I was going to afford my healthcare, which was taken out of my paycheck already just the stresses and the mental stress that that leaves.
Jasmine Styles:
Yeah, so my first job like I said I was in Columbia, South Carolina, which I mean, versus now, had like a great cost of living, but I think my, if I can remember correctly… I think… did my mom go by herself? I think my mom went to South Carolina by herself to look at apartments. I don't think I was involved for whatever reason. And she picked an expensive apartment. It was like nine hundred dollars, which I would be glad to pay nine hundred dollars right now, but at the time I was making $26.5k. I was dirt poor. I was making eight hundred dollars every paycheck less than my rent. So, by the time it was time to pay rent, I… like where's the money going? And at that time I don't know why I was trying to be like Miss Independent, but I should have stayed on my parents insurance, because those were the Obama years and you could stay on your parents insurance until you were 26, so I still had like four more I could have stayed, but I just was like I’m going to step out on my own here, and that was stupid because that was more money getting taken out of my paycheck. South Carolina had - because I'm living in Florida my whole life and I've had like little part-time jobs, but you know you're not - you don't pay state tax. You pay state tax there, you pay federal taxes, and I got like a little refunds, but not much like it was - I mean, my check was teeny tiny, and then um, you know, you just don't have enough money to pay for food, and um fun, like when I wanted to - I think my mom knew that I was like suffering because I was never at things, and I'm like a very social person and like, I remember the one time Florida State made it to the ACC championship and like it was in Charlotte, which was only like an hour and a half, two hours from Columbia, and I was like, I really want to go, but I can't afford to ticket. I can't afford to travel. I can't afford the hotel, and my mom helped me so that I could go. I think she knew that, like I was in a bad position with money and also knew that like I was, I was missing friends like I don’t want so say like I didn't have like true friends there because like I had like very good people in my atmosphere, but I missed people I was familiar with and I think that was also a big cause of feeling sad. I was also going through a massive break up at the time, so that didn't do anything for me. I remember when he broke up with me, I went to my favorite pizza spot, I bought a whole medium pizza. There was also Publix and I am a fiend for Publix chocolate chip cookies. I bought a whole two dozen. I ate that whole pizza and half a box of cookies by myself. I was so sad. Thank goodness that didn't go through. That was the best thing that could have ever happened in my life. But I was such a sad little puppy in Columbia. I just - I really masked it well, but I was very sad.
Molly Casey:
Eating a whole pizza and half… That just sounds like it makes my stomach hurt like it sounds amazing to eat right now, but also…
Jasmine Styles:
It was - that was - that was before I was like lactose intolerant. That was super young, Jasmine, you know, like I was out here eating full blown pizza without a lactaid pill girl. Like, times have changed, times have really changed because I carry like pills in my purse, at work, in my car. I was like you're not going to catch me sleeping, but I'm not about to be sick out here. Those are the good old days.
Molly Casey:
Oh my god… *laughs* So, when you first got into journalism and you first thought you know about the career that you would have, did anyone ever tell you about what you would be facing when you were in the career? Whether it be trauma, harassment, any of that, and how it would affect your mental health?
Jasmine Styles:
No! Nobody ever told us that kind of stuff. Nobody ever told me that like I don't know. Maybe because - it sounds crazy, but I'm a normal person, you know? I see things on facebook that I think are all wrong, and instead of going back and forth, I just block them or I'll delete them as friends, or I see a comment and I'll screenshot it and send it to the group chat. But I'm not going to go back and forth with this person unless they're slandering me. But you know people just pop off and say dumb stuff and I'm just like, “that's stupid, like, what a loser.” But people really think that they own news people. They really think that their opinion matters. And I'm here to tell you breaking news, news flash, buddy, it doesn't like. Um, They will write about - now For me, I don't get clocked a whole, whole bunch because - I'm trying to say this nicely… I know what I'm doing. Like my hair - the hair was rough the first job because I was poor, but now that I have money my hair looks nice. I can do my makeup, like blah blah blah, but you know a lot of girls would get like, “Oh my God, what are you wearing?” I remember, one girl got a phone call, or no, it was an email. The emails get sent to the entire news room when they get sent to the desk. This man was saying that he would give her money for a nose job because her nose was so big. Like that kind of stuff.
Molly Casey:
Stop.
Jasmine Styles:
Yeah, I've only, it only has happened to me once, but they get male genital pics like in their DMs. I had a man come up to the news station at three in the morning, knocking on the door trying to see me. I had another man who would send me like ransom note love notes talking about how he wanted to have a baby with me. It gets really crazy and I feel like as a woman it's just like another drop in the bucket, because we all know how disgusting some men can be. Um, but it just gets amplified because you’re on people's TVs. and of course like dudes will be like, “Oh my God, you're so pretty.” I just - I don't even respond because I don't want to give them ammo to be like “Oh, can I talk to you” and like, I appreciate the compliment, but I'm just not going to like fuel it any further. But you know people are commenting on your hair when I've had braids like some people have been like, “Oh my God, take your braids out” and I'm like, “No.” Like - also I’m like here's my cash app.” If you really want me to change my hair, you can send me three hundred dollars for some new bundles and to get it done.” And like I am not you. You don't dictate what I do. My bosses are cool with it. You're going to have to deal with it. So I feel like, from a women's perspective, you get a lot, and just like seeing other women, you get a lot of just like misogynistic, patriarchal, sexual harassment like it's out of out of whack. And then, just for the stress. I mean my first job, low key, I was getting - what’s the word - taking advantage of. I was salaried working overtime. Like I was an MMJ. I would get out of there sometimes at like- I was day side, out of there sometimes at eight, nine o'clock, you know, and I'm like - I’m only - I should be getting extra pay for this. I wasn't getting overtime or anything. I tell my young bucks that, I’ll tell them like you need to be hourly if all you are is an MMJ, like hourly, also just a danger like one of my friends at the other stations at my first job was doing live shots in the morning by herself, and sometimes like dangerous territory. That's not cool. What else? Just like the back lash? Sometimes you get it from management. I think everyone knows that it's like a pressure cooker in