Sultry Filipina is a sports & fitness journalist
Jeannette Josue used to imagine herself a broadcast journalist like Connie Chung, whom she and her grandmother would watch on the evening news and admire. But it was a thought that lingered unshared because at that time, Jeannette was conscious of her “speech impediment.”
“I had a Filipino accent and had difficulty pronouncing my “Th’s, Sh’s and D’s,” she told The FilAm. “Even though I was born and raised in Jersey City, my parents spoke mostly Tagalog at home.”
Jeannette got over the inferiority complex after a guidance counselor in high school encouraged her to compete in the beauty pageant Miss New Jersey’s Perfect Teen. In high school, “my world began evolving,” she said. She went places she never imagined would open for her and met people she once thought she could only watch on TV. Public speaking courses also helped paved the road.
Today, Jeannette is a reporter for MarblePlayTV, a sports and fitness web channel, where she holds the enviable job interviewing sports luminaries such as tennis legend John McEnroe, Olympic medalist Wesley Korir, retired wide receiver Amani Toomer and many more. She is slated to co-host this year’s Filipino Heritage Night with the New York Mets on September 17.
“I was a pretty shy teenager,” she said. She recognized now why her guidance counselor continued to encourage her telling her the beauty competition could change the way she saw herself. “She was right.”
In college, Jeannette earned a modeling contract and began acting classes. Soon, she was appearing in commercials and print ads and gracing fashion magazines. “I had tiny parts in ‘All My Children’ and ‘Sex in the City,’” she shared.
Her sultry looks won her more beauty pageant titles, the latest being Ms. New York-United States 2012. Not quite satisfied being just ‘another pretty face,’ she earned a degree in Economics at NYU “in three years.” From being a model, she went straight to working for a financial company — a “huge adjustment,” she conceded.
“By the time it was 2009, my resume became a collection of jobs all from different fields,” she said.
MarblePlayTV was a happy accident. She was hired as an advertising sales rep, working closely with a video producer to find various revenue streams. “One day the freelance reporter cancelled last minute and the producer asked me to cover an event. And there I was, hosting my first interview, at Lincoln Center, for a health detox juice.”
The Pinay who fretted about her accent is now covering more than 15 events each month, and enjoys shaking hands with Mayor Bloomberg, Councilman Peter Koo, and other city officials and celebrities.
“MarblePlayTV is helping me mature into this role, and the more I run around chasing stories, the more I love what I do,” she said.
While hers may seem like a glamorous job, Jeannette said running around the five boroughs using mass transit is far from the romanticized movie depiction of a journalist.
“But I enjoy it, and that’s a blessing,” she said. “Not a lot of people get to say that about their job.”
Jeannette Josue with parents Jaime and Teresita Josue
GO JEANNETTE
WOW!!!! WOW!!! WOW!!! WHAT A LIVING DOLL!!!!