You watched her for years as a FOX6 TV anchor. Now, Stephanie Grady has a new career teaching young female athletes how to succeed in all facets of their life. She tells WTMJ’s Libby Collins her story of growing up devoted to training for the Olympics as a figure skater, her method for success, and her techniques for training young women to be camera-ready and business-savvy. It’s all ahead on this edition of WTMJ Conversations! Listen in the player above.
A partial transcript is provided below, courtesy of eCourt Reporters.
LIBBY COLLINS: How difficult is it for young women in sports versus young men?
STEPHANIE GRADY: I think that guys and girls both face problems of their own. And I think when it comes to females, there’s just different criteria for them: Do they have a certain look, like, no one would ever think that about a guy. Like, oh, does he look like he’s supposed to look. I think that people judge women, even if they’re on the basketball court, for the way that they’re dressing and what they look like and how they’re hair is.
What I like to do is really just empower these women to say, look, if you feel as though you haven’t been paid as much attention to, you have so much to offer, let’s figure out what you have to offer and let’s show you how to put it out in the world. Because there’s so many successful women out there, let’s teach you how to be one of them.
STEPHANIE GRADY: I became a figure skater at the age of 7, and that ended up being where I wanted to put my sole attention was figure skating. And so, I was very competitive, skated six days a week, traveled an hour-and-a-half both directions each day, got out of high school early, didn’t partake in gym, didn’t do that sort of stuff all because of my dedication to skating and just what was required of me go ahead and do that. I spent basically from 7 until 17 as a highly competitive figure skater.
LIBBY COLLINS: What were your aspirations?
STEPHANIE GRADY: To go to the Olympics one day. That’s what I was training for, but unfortunately at the age of 17, I got really injured and it was one of those injuries that it was just you can never go back on the ice again.
