TV presenting is not for the faint hearted, especially if we’re talking live radio and television, where anything can happen. These girls have spent years perfecting their craft, have now nailed the career pivot game, and are sharing their inspiring journey from aspiring presenters to becoming the real deal!
Meet the presenters: Snoochie Shy
Snoochie Shy, 29 is a talented TV and radio presenter, podcaster, model, DJ and as rapper Rick Ross calls her a total BOSS! She can be found hosting her own late night specialist show on BBC Radio 1Xtra.
This South London babes has interviewed some of the most popular people in popular culture from Little Mix, to Ms Banks and Rick Ross (duh! ). Snoochie’s personality seems far from her namesake and we were completely captivated by her refreshing honesty. Anyone that meets can instantly tell that her energy and wit is unmatched.
Henrie
Henrie Kwushue, 25 is DJ, content creator and a ‘fun beb’ as captioned on her instagram bio. Henrie who was also born and raised in South-London is about to become a seriously familiar face. Some of us may know her from Spotify’s Who We Be UK’s podcast and contribution to the No Signal Radio station online, or from her weekend slot early breakfast show at KISS FM.
Day one stans will recognise that comforting smile and banterous energy from the ‘IS YOUR AREA CHANGING’ which is a Youtube docu-series she created and produced that went viral.
Joelah Noble
Joelah Noble, is a south London born presenter who actually spent a good portion of her childhood – eight years in Brooklyn – entrenched in New York city’s melting pot of culture, and has developed her love for presenting throughout the years. In her tweens she was convinced she would marry rapper Bow Wow (who didn’t? ) and by the time she reached her teens she felt the need to reinvent herself in order to acclimate back to UK culture and find her thing! Now Joelah is a popular TV presenter, working with ITV and at Premier League Uncut and things seem to only be going up from here.
These three women in the industry share their come-up stories for all you aspiring presenters out there.
Snoochie Shy:
Before music I wanted to be a stylist / fashion blogger
“I was a fashion blogger, but I wanted to be a stylist. I started styling for a magazine called Rewind at the time. However, I quickly came to the conclusion that I couldn’t actually style people. I would just make them wear what I was wearing. I was just trash, but that’s how I fell into presenting. I met some people that encouraged me to tap into it. ”
Believe it or not I used to be really, really shy…
“I’ve always been quite shy growing up, so at first when an opportunity to do presenting rose up, I said no. But then I thought about it and decided to give it a go. I was around 18 at the time and we started off doing this YouTube channel, where I would basically talk about what was going on in the UKrap scene. From there I started working for MTV online and doing community radio stations as well. Then I kind of ended up at IBBC1 Xtra/i and presenting at MTV. ”
I still hear a lot of No’s today. . I’m just much better at accepting them
“I definitely went through a phase where I was thought that I wasn’t good enough for a lot of stuff. I’d get upset about a lot of things. When you get into the industry, you hear a lot of noise. I still get ‘No’s‘ now but I’m better at handling them. I had a great therapist and she really helped me. ”
Creating space in the industry
“I can’t lie, I’ve just learned to not give a f*** about what other people think. I just learned to do my thing. I’ve worked hard in my career and I just don’t care what anyone else thinks. The main thing is to not let things like that hold you back and affect your morale. However, in order to make our industry more welcoming and safer for Black women, ultimately we need to be more supportive of the Black women that are already in the scene as well as Black women trying to make their way into the scene. Help lighten the load, listen to them and be an ally. ”
My best tips to clapback against misogyny is. .
“To tell men to stop being d***s… that’s it really. Or s*** your mum really. I interchange between the two…”
Best advice for girls who wanna do what I do…
“Utilize social media. You can literally learn to do so much on the internet, whether that’d be DJing or presenting. I also would say grab a camera and go out in the streets and interview people, edit it up and create a mini showreel. Most importantly remember that you are lit and don’t let anyone dim your light. ”
If my beauty cabinet was on fire I would save…
“I would have to say my eyelash glue, because I’m allergic to most eyelash glues. I would obviously have to take my Lime Crime Wet Cherry Lip Gloss, because we need to be looking good at any moment. Then any moisturiser I could find, maybe the Vaseline Skin Cream Cocoa Radiant. ”
Henrie
I was really shy and nervous before I got into presenting…
“I’m a creative and I wanted to try my hand at presenting. I was really nervous and really shy. So at first that didn’t really help, because the presenters that we know aren’t nervous or shy, they’re really big characters. But I thought, ‘what else could I really do in this life? ’ So I just took a leap of faith and went straight into it. ”
I’ve forced myself to take big leaps of faith…
“I used to have ‘aspiring DJ and presenter’ on my social media bios and I literally changed it to ‘DJ and presenter’, because why not! I then left my job at a makeup store and that was a huge leap of faith, to quit a secure job to do this creative stuff full time. Everything has been like a huge leap of faith for me every single time, but I haven’t stopped since. ”
I love recording my music podcast with my co-host Harry Pinero…
“Harry Pinero and I have this Spotify music podcast called “Who we be talks” partnered with a playlist of the same name which has over 600,000 followers now, which is incredible. It’s all about black culture, black music, and everything that’s going on within the black sphere including race, gender, sexuality, relationships, money, you name it. We get incredible guest’s every week and I’m actually having a lot of fun doing it. Also Harry is literally one of the funniest people. We have so much fun working together. ”
One of my ways to clapback against misogyny is to not even spend time thinking about men…
“I try not to think about men. Like I really, really try not to think about them whatsoever. As Black women, we don’t make up as much of the space as we should. I was going through a period a couple of years ago where I was feeling down about the idea of being a Black woman in this space and doubting how far I could advance? But then I just stopped thinking about it. It’s really easy for Black women / for people to shrink themselves in an environment where they’re not really made to feel comfortable or welcome. Make space for yourself and be unapologetic about it. ”
My Pandemic life: Spending afternoons playing Sims 4 and then hosting a radio show with over 1 million listeners…
“The pandemic was really hard for me in the beginning. I was just sitting at home playing a lot of Sims 4… but then that’s where No Signal, our viral black radio station, came from. It was created by Black people, for Black people. We quickly amassed one million listeners, which was incredible. It was created by my friend and his brother and they invited me to be a part of it. They asked me if I wanted to do something called 10 V 10. Like the versuz battles that have been happening on Instagram. ”
We broke the internet…
“Our first show during the pandemic No Signal Radio had about 50 listeners. At first we thought, ‘oh my gosh, that’s so many’ but the following continued to grow week in and week out. We grew from 50 listeners to one million listeners worldwide across three platforms during the pandemic. It literally broke the internet, like, my laptop stopped working…”
Just be yourself…
“The best advice I’ve ever been given (without sounding too cliché) is to just be yourself. If you’re faking it, people will clock. The worst advice I’ve been given is to plan things. I don’t ever plan too hard. I’m just here to live and enjoy my life. We’ve seen with the pandemic that anything can change at the drop of a hat. A lot of the things that I’m doing now I could have never planned for. I think it’s good to have goals, but to really plan out your life? I’m just not too sure on that anymore. ”
My advice for girls that want to do what I do is…
“You don’t have to give all of yourself to the internet all the time or all of yourself to a job, but whatever it is about your character that you think makes you relatable, own it. That’s the reason why you’re going to get booked and that’s how you create a brand for yourself. Find your lane and find what makes you, you. . ”
If my beauty cabinet was on fire I’d save…
Joelah Noble
I knew nothing about grime music when I started working here
“I started presenting, I would say, quite late. Usually women will start straight after turning 18 as they know that’s what they always wanted to do. It took me a little longer to figure that out. I got an offer to present for Grime Daily News in 2016. I’d just moved back to England from NYC and I didn’t know anything about garage, and grime was just kind of kicking off so it was really great to be a part of that moment. ”
We need more Black women in our industry
“I think we first need to be honest with ourselves and admit that gender inequality is an issue. The fact that there’s not that many Black women in our industry, is no secret. The people who are in these offices, need to make that conscious effort to get more us in the jobs. There’s been too many times where I have been the only Black person or Black women on set, in the room and even in the building. I think we should also be bringing each other in as well. If you see an opportunity for another Black woman, then you can open the door for her as well. Sometimes there’s this irrational sentiment that says there’s only room for one of us or a couple of us. There’s space for everyone. But ultimately give us more jobs. ”
I turned down a Premier League presenting job because I was scared of not being good enough
“Trust your decisions. I’ve lived on the other side of it where I haven’t been sure about my decisions. I’ve been super insecure in the past. I’ve allowed other people to put their fears, insecurities, all of that stuff onto me. So even with the football stuff, the Premier League invited me to do it after I did coverage for the Women’s World Cup. I actually said no at first, as I was not comfortable doing it. I knew that it would be a good opportunity, but I just thought, ‘I don’t know this stuff, I don’t know these people’. They knew I didn’t know that, but they still wanted me. The next year, I agreed to do something else with football, then the offer returned and here I am. ”
Finding my happy place has been one of my biggest achievements
“I’ve had some real low depressing times, and times where I just felt so lost in all honesty. I really didn’t know who the hell I was. My ability to come out of that, to find that happy place, to feel at peace, to continue to learn, to search for knowledge and to make an effort, I think is my biggest achievement. ”
The worst piece of advice I’ve ever been given is to focus on one thing only
“The best piece of advice I’ve been given would probably sound cliché but it’s to just do it. If you want something, go for it. Also to always appreciate and enjoy the present time. The worst piece of advice I’ve been given was to focus on one thing. For a while I thought that’s what I was supposed to do but that didn’t make me feel fulfilled. I didn’t feel like I was making use of the talents that I have. As crazy and overwhelming as it is sometimes to be focusing on five things at once, it feels right to me and it’s super fulfilling. ”
Things will go wrong
“The best advice I could give to girls wanting to do what I do is really about trusting yourself. That’s not to say, go in blindly, it’s trusting yourself but also doing your research. When you get that opportunity, you’ve got to be in that present moment and fully live in it. If things go wrong – when things go wrong, because they’re definitely going to go wrong – you just need to be okay with that. Don’t dwell on it. Don’t beat yourself up about it ten days or ten years later, move forward. ”
If my beauty cabinet was on fire I’d save…
“My NYX Professional Makeup Butter Gloss in the shade Madeleine. My moisturiser, 100%. I’m a bit of a product junkie. So I tend to try different things. I’d say the one I’m using now is the Dr. Jart’s Ceramide Cream and it just feels nice, nice, nice! Really hydrating. Thirdly, I’d save my makeup remover, but if I had a few extra seconds, I’d try and sneak out my Benefit Goof Proof Brow Pencil. ”
