Media juggernauts like Joy Taylor and Taylor Rooks, are just the latest example of folks in sports media venturing into mediums that they can control. These two ladies launched Two Personal earlier this month, an online show and podcast that gives a perspective of their lives outside of the lens of the sport. The significance of this show for one, is that it launched during Women’s History Month, but it also follows the trails blazed by some other dynamic women in sports media. This endeavor is a part of these ladies’ legacies, and it’s necessary.
Men continue to dominate the online podcasting space with content that covers sports, as well as pop culture. Some notable shows range from Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay, to Stephen A’s Stephen A. Smith Show and Gilbert Arenas’ Gil’s Arena. What you notice about all of these shows is that the hosts have complete autonomy to emote and articulate themselves as they see fit. A huge appeal of creating your own show is the ability to be even more authentic across a wider array of subject matters. You can use colloquialisms or share opinions that oftentimes wouldn’t fit on television.
Thankfully, there are women in the sports media space who have also taken to this. Not only that but they’ve been hugely successful. For instance, you have ESPN alumni Cari Champion with her show Naked with Cari Champion, and Jemele Hill with Jemele Hill is Unbothered. In both offerings, those ladies can be candid about whatever interests they have. They have guests that span the lexicon of entertainment and politics. Ultimately, they weave conversation in some of the most poised ways you could imagine. They help set a standard. That standard is now pushed forward with Two Personal.
During a recent interview with Blavity, she said, “It was just the right time,” referring to why she and Rooks decided to start this show.
She added, “With so little Black women in the space, it was important for us to be intentional.”
Taylor and Rooks have been friends for years. Taylor made it known that it was important for both of them to be established enough in their careers before taking this endeavor on the way they sought to.
Two Personal certainly adds balance to the digital space for Black women, but Taylor explained how that wasn’t the main impetus for starting the show.
“The conversations that we’re [she and Rooks] having, we’re not seeing on other platforms,” she said.
It’s a void that these two ladies are beginning to fill. Now that you think of it, it is a glaring void. But it’s also unique to have two ladies in the same industry have conversations about life for us to see. There isn’t anything else like it.
Two Personal seeks to show how two Black women can have nuanced conversations without being disrespectful to one another, according to Taylor. To be able to reach this point where women are controlling their narratives more and more is no cavalier accomplishment.
“Time, and so many women who paved the way for us,” she said regarding more on-screen equity for Black women. “People don’t want to hear the same views, from the same people, from the same places anymore.”
Rooks and Taylor embody all that the ladies who came before them sought to be. They view this opportunity in part as a homage to that sentiment. Making the most of this moment is what it’s all about. And for all the Black women in the industry, they also move in kind. If these women didn’t do it, no one else would.
