THE INSIDE WORD
LIFE IS SKYROCKETING FOR JODIE DOWN
THE youngest winner at the recent Women in Business event was Jodie Down, captain at A.B. Paterson College (pictured with college principal Joanne Sheehy), who won the Empowering Young Women’s Award.
If you are worried about how the next decades will be handled, worry no more, because if Jodie is the future, we are in very safe hands. Besides winning multiple prizes for English, modern history, literature and biology, she is also the editor of the school newspaper, The Brumby Bulletin.
But wait, there’s more. Jodie is also a member of the Queensland Youth Parliament representing the seat of Gaven and is the Shadow Assistant Minister for Justice and Corrective Services.
To top off all those achievements, she has also been selected for two United Nations Youth Australia tours.
Impressive and then some.
STILL RADFLYING THROUGH A PANDEMIC
IT’S not just the economy that has been hit hard by the lockdowns and border closures. Charities have endured rising demand and decreased donations and like so many, RADFLY (Realise A Difference for Local Youth) has endured a massive disruption to the work it does.
“Our fundraising capacity has been greatly reduced, because in the past 18 months, we have only been able to hold two events,” said president Naomi Middlebrook (pictured left, on right, with Kath Walker).
“Thankfully, we have our newly established RADFLY Foundation and some generous donors to get us through.
“We had to get creative, because one of the organisations we support, YHES in Southport, wasn’t able to see clients due to Covid regulations.
“However, through Women of Influence, we set up the Laptop Project, providing computers for disadvantaged young people. We also opened Arcadia College this year from which 42 students graduated, 11 of whom received direct entry into university.
“Hopefully next year we can go back to having more fundraising functions.”
SHANYN AND THAT MARGOT QUOTE
SHANYN Asmar holds a unique place in showbiz history: Early in her career, she did a scene in Neighbours with a very young Margot Robbie.
The script called for her to slap the future superstar and then say the immortal line, “You’ll never amount to anything!”
It is a memory that causes Shanyn to laugh out loud, especially considering Margot’s stratospheric rise since.
Born in Brisbane, it was her exotic mix of Lebanese, Celtic and Chinese that got her work as a 12-year-old model. “It was mainly modelling, but then I started doing commercials with speaking parts and that led to acting,” she said.
A move to Melbourne, study at the National Theatre and then a succession of roles on stage and in TV shows such as A Country Practice, The Feds, Blue Heelers and Doctor Blake Mysteries followed. Add roles in Glitch, The Lost World and Beastmaster the American TV series, plus movies such as Crocodile Dundee III and Chameleon II, and she was enjoying a stellar career.
“I got married and had a daughter, but sadly, the marriage didn’t last. I couldn’t bear the thought of working and leaving my daughter behind, so I changed focus. (I’m) modelling again, becoming a Clinique consultant in Melbourne and taking occasional roles.”
Ironically, it was a move back to the Gold Coast that has relaunched her career.
“It was the need to be nearer to family initially but then Covid hit and the borders were shut, which meant a lot of film and TV productions shifted up here. I’ve just finished shooting The Mystery of Dolphin Bay and an eight-episode drama called Darby and Joan with Bryan Brown and Greta Scacchi. Both wonderful people, and Greta, besides being unbelievably beautiful, is one of the funniest people I’ve met.
“In Dolphin Bay, I had to drive a 1955 FJ Holden with a column shift. It was nerveracking because I had a lot of lines plus I was terrified of wrecking that historic car,” she laughed. And the future? “There are a few things happening and I am so grateful that this has happened at this stage in my life. I have a wonderful agent, Ryan Verbruggen (pictured) from AE Artists, and I’m at a really happy time in my life. I’m so blessed.”