Mara Schiavocampo
The world of media, especially network television, can be a weird place. It’s an environment where you can find someone who worked their a$$ off to get into the room, but also filled with the lot who got there because someones daddy knew a buddy from the golf course. You’ll find yourself getting a head nod in the hallway, asked if you’re new, and welcomed by one person. Only to be told you can’t look so-and-so directly in the eyes, the next. I’m happy to announce that Mara is one of the down-to-earth good ones.
I remember when I worked overnight for Good Morning America Weekend, I gave out PopSugar boxes to the women who working that day. When you’re a Booker for network news, which at the time I was, you get a lot of free stuff sent to you. And since it was right around Christmas, I thought the women would enjoy the small gifts. If my memory serves me right, that was the first time Mara and I spoke—when I gifted her one of the boxes. Even in the brief interaction, I learned so much about her, she was: appreciative, kind, humble, just normal. As a young Black woman in the business, I needed to see that. I needed to know that I didn’t have to compromise who I was, because of what I did for a living.
These days, Mara is the Senior Investigative Reporter at Dr. Oz, and the host of her own weekly podcast The Trend Reporter. A true girly girl at heart, TTR is a real passion project for Mara. It’s where she digs into the latest trends in beauty, wellness, style, and fitness, to uncover which trends you should pay attention to, and the ones you should dismiss. She’s a mom of two, and wife to her husband, Tommie—which by the way these two have been together for 25 YEARS. We’re gonna have to catch up with her again to figure out how to make THAT happen. But for now, let’s get to know her a little better.
1.) What inspires you to do what you do professionally?
My parents. They were real hardcore news junkies, like news was on in my house 24/7, newspapers delivered to the house, and magazines. And still to this day, they just really value an informed public. And that lesson was very clear to me since I was a child.
2.) What person has had the biggest influence on your life and why?
My daughter, and the reason is because she made me a mother. It’s not that she’s more important than my son, but because she’s my oldest. So before she was born I was a woman, then a woman who was pregnant, and when she was born, I transitioned to becoming a mother, and that has been the single most significant transition in my life.
3.) How do you practice balance in your life?
By giving myself permission to rest, and to take breaks, and doing the things I enjoy on a regular basis. So if ti’s watching a show, or having a cocktail— it used to be going out, but of course I haven’t done that since March. You know just giving myself permission to do things that recharge me.
4.) How do you use your inherited gifts, platform, or particular privilege to give back?
Well right now I think the most important thing I can do is use my voice. And thats what we need right now, people speaking out and using their voice against injustice, and I think for the first time people feel like they’re free to do that. So that is my focus right now.
5.) What person living or dead would you like to sit down for a meal with?
Well Jesus is the obvious one. But I think also Tupac. I just was always a huge fan, and I went to UCLA because I wanted to meet and marry Tupac, and then he was killed two weeks before I went off to school my freshmen year—so the fantasy kind of went down the drain. But I was always so impressed, he was such a young man when he was killed he was only 24. He was much older than me, that he always seemed larger than life, so now me being much older than he was by the time he died—and listening to his music, and realizing how wise beyond his years he was. Everything he’s ever said still holds true. And so I would very much like to just sit and talk.
6.) What’s your ideal cocktail, wine, or drink?
I love—and we named this the Black Power, as far as I know we made this up! It is dangerous, so if you drink it be careful, you’ll have two and you’ll be texting your exes! It’s Hendricks Gin, Grapefruit Juice, and St. Germain.
7.) What’s your biggest vice?
Probably drinking, I drink a lot and I have to keep an eye on it because there’s a lot of addiction in my family. It’s never gotten to the point where I feel it’s been a problem, but I pay attention.
8.) Name one thing you’d like to be kinder to yourself about?
My weight. I’ll never be cured, your formative years are called that for a reason, they form who you are. So when I look at myself now I have the same conversations I had with myself when I was a teenager.
9.) What’s your biggest insecurity?
I place a lot of value on how my body looks. So depending on where I am at any given point in time, it affects how I view myself.
10.) What outstanding goal do you have that you’ve yet to accomplish?
My life’s work these days is conquering the digital space, so I want 100k Youtube subscribers, I want a Podcast thats in the top 10, I want to conquer that space, so I’d say those goals.
