5:11
- culture
- May 9, 2023
Take it from Juju Chang: 'Marry your passion'
“There are ways forward with solidarity and healing.”
Video by Nidhi Singh, Will Linendoll
5:11
To this day, Chang remains close with her siblings. Their combined 13 children are present in each other's lives.
“I think it speaks to the family values that my parents instilled in us and that I'm instilling in my kids,” she said. “Friends come and go, lovers come and go, but family is forever.”
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/IMG_8128_1620425210865_hpEmbed_4x3_384.jpg\")
For Chang, a career in journalism wasn’t always on the radar. She initially set out to pursue a career in engineering, but after several courses in college, realized her passions were in political science.
“I took all these hardcore engineering courses and then the required English and political science courses,” Chang shared. “I literally flunked the calculus-physics midterm and I got an A-plus in political science.”
It was that realization that set her on the track to pursue a career in journalism. After several years of working as a news producer, Chang became on-air talent with ABC News, where she has covered breaking news events, politics and the Democratic National Convention in the '90s.
“Who would’ve thought that I would grow up to report on a presidential nominating convention? It was such a big deal,” she said. “I remember thinking it felt so American.”
Her secret to success?
“Follow your talent. If you are good at something it’s probably because you like it too,” Chang said. “Marrying your talent and your passion is the key to success.”
![\"ABC](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/158768_0277_1620425210856_hpEmbed_16x11_384.jpg\")
In March 2021, Chang co-hosted alongside correspondent Eva Pilgrim the ABC News hour-long special, “Stop The Hate: The Rise in Violence against Asian Americans.” The program explored hate crimes against Asian Americans and the increase in anti-Asian bias that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s not that anti-Asian bias didn’t exist before the pandemic, it most certainly did,” Chang said. “But in many ways it was unleashed and weaponized against the Asian-American community.”
This program was important for Chang, which among her many accolades includes first Korean American correspondent on “Good Morning America.”
Through her hard conversations with the Asian-American community, Chang did say she is hopeful for the future.
“There are ways forward with solidarity and healing,” she said. “You don’t fight racism with racism. You fight racism with solidarity and that’s what I think we accomplished that night.”
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/IMG_8112_1620425987984_hpEmbed_3x4_384.jpg\")
Throughout her three-decade long career as a journalist, Chang has covered a variety of difficult news topics, ranging from abductions to mass shootings to hate crimes.
“You can’t help but take on compassion when you hear those stories over and over again,” she said.
The past year has been especially difficult for journalists because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chang noted.
“It was hard emotionally to see that level of death and despair,” she said.
Although it's sometimes difficult to report on these stories, Chang recognizes the significance of the job and the importance of self-care.
“When you report on the news, you see that the world’s problems are so enormous and so intransigent in some ways that you really need to step away sometimes,” she said.
She added, “Sometimes you have to step away because otherwise it just becomes overwhelming.”
Editor's note: This was originally published on May 11, 2021.
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