Jojo Struys

Nuffnang Featured Blogger for the month of June

www.jojostruys.com

Hi! guys. I don’t really know where to start so I’ll start at the beginning. My parents told me they found me in a garbage bin. I’m serious!! What’s worse is that they always told variations of this story with such straight faces *wink* but I thought I came from the land of fairies! lol So traumatic init? So I needed to find out the truth of how I came to be in this world… .

When I was about 5, I asked my Mum how babies were made. She kept it really simple…

Mum: “Well, if you want to have a boy, you take a blue pill. If you want to have a girl, you take a pink pill”

So that’s how it works! I nodded as if it all made total sense,

Jojo : "oh so you took 3 pink pills then!"

Mum : (laughing) "that’s right darling" because there were 3 of us (I don’t have any brothers)

Not only had Mum solved the mystery of creation, this put an end to the garbage bin theory *sigh of relief* :)

When I began modelling, people used to ask if “Jojo” was a stage name but it’s a nickname I never grew out of. My real name is Jeannette. My Mum studied in France and gave us all French names (Nicole, Odette and Jeannette) You need to roll the first part of my name to pronounce it right. No one could do this, starting with my father so I was "Jojo" before I could crawl and it just stuck.

Initially, I felt guilty that my parents spent all this money on my overseas education but I had somehow become a model. My income was haphazard and unpredictable. I could make zero in a week to RM8000 in a day, just depending on the job and you can never control what you get and believe me, I know how it feels to have almost nothing on a dry spell! My Dad used to periodically ask me “are you ok for money? You know you have a business degree you can use…etc …etc” yet he also said "look, so long as you’re happy and it’s keeping a roof over your head, Mum and me are fine with whatever you choose to do"

Dad told me how a lot of his friends regretted not backpacking round the world before getting their first job. By the time they were retired and had all the time in the world, they were too old to climb a mountain. So that was the green light I was waiting for. I felt fortunate that they weren’t crazy about this idea of me becoming a model but they fully supported me anyway.

In Vietnam admiring her hat ;)

On Saipan island in the Western Pacific ocean for a bikini shoot for a HK travel mag. You can’t tell in this shot but the water out there was green! Sooo beautiful *dreamy sigh*

Somewhere in Dali, China at the local market

Modelling for me was like one big travelling holiday. I was having the time of my life. I met so many amazing people while working in Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, Bangkok, Singapore and KL.

Myself, Gary and Fleur Gaskin in Bangkok

On Koh Phangan for a break between filming

Wish someone told me I was gonna get drenched on this shoot! ;)

I had these ridiculous school teacher glasses I sometimes partied with lol

Ase, Vanessa and Melanie in Hong Kong

I was grateful modelling was keeping a roof over my head but I didn’t get caught up in the job itself or the label of "model". It was the freedom it was giving me to travel which I loved about it.

Vaness, myself, Serena and Stan in Taiwan

When I was modelling in Taiwan, my girlfriend invited me out to dinner. I didn’t realize who Vaness from F4 or the Machi were at the time but when I saw him on that Fire and Ice ad some time back, it dawned on me, "wow, he’s actually really famous!" He’s even recorded stuff with Beyonce and Kanye West. Well, at least I can say I beat him at quite a few rounds of that drinking game 5/10, don’t play play! Haha ;)

On the set of Saya’s music video in Taiwan (She has almost the same eyes as her sister Ah Mei and the girl can dance, I had to give it to her ;)

Sonia Couling and me taking a breather at F1 Sepang when she came down to visit from Bangkok.

Living in different countries was an eye opener and helped me grow as a person. My parents always said that travel is one of the best forms of education and there’s only so much you can learn from a book.

As it turns out, modelling led to a whole range of different things from acting in Kopitiam, hosting a talk show called Pillow Talk to having a column in FHM called “Ask Jojo and Jeevan” (till Jeevan moved to Singapore to join ESPN

FHM readers could get a male and female spin on the same question. It was really fun and some of the questions were pretty hilarious eg, this guy wrote in saying “My flatmate is so loud at night with his girlfriend, I can’t sleep. Should I tell him? How do I tell him?” lol ;)

After that, I had this nagging feeling that I had to do something with wellness because I’ve been doing yoga for ages and the mind is an amazing thing. I’ve always been interested in what makes a person tick. I’m a strong believer that we, as humans have a lot of power so you may as well choose to be positive.

There’s a reason why they say stress is a killer because negative thoughts can make your body break down. I decided to throw myself into producing and scriptwriting TV content. The first show I produced was called “Jojo’s Ticket to Wellbeing” and more recently “Health Buzz” (on TV3 and NTV7).

We always shot on location so every day the “set” changed which was great but it was such a demanding schedule to keep to. It could move from a dance studio to a cave to someone’s house. * We even flew overseas to interview the Adidas global ambassador in yoga from Los Angeles. My goodness, her body was like a rubber band! ;)

It was my first time hosting ANYTHING in Malay. Naturally, I was freaking out before the shoot *yikes* so I asked Zizan if he could help me.

I’m so grateful he took time out in between filming his dramas to help me out. I ended up improving bit by bit, especially on set. It was FAR from perfect but I really tried my best!

It was so encouraging to hear people say they understood me just fine *phew*

Harith and his awesome cats : )

my co-host Jehan Miskin on right

Jay, Amber, myself and Daphne at the Shape Run

Concurrent to the shoot, I was on the night shift at MIX fm for a year but it became too difficult to juggle filming and being on radio until midnight every night. I promised my boss I wasn’t going to totally leave so I continue to write health and empowerment messages which air every day on MIX fm. The first one I wrote was “don’t feed dogs chocolates” It’s a lucky thing I did it coz so many people who have dogs didn’t realise that chocolates can even kill them!

Pls click here to have a listen to it…

Another thing I’m really passionate about is tap dancing. I’ve been doing it for more than 20 years and I love jamming with drummers. It makes such an interesting fusion. Click here to see how tap goes so well with percussion

Blogging is a new thing for me but it just made sense. I’ve always enjoyed writing so at least I’ve found an outlet to express my thoughts and how I see things. It would mean a lot to me if you guys could check out my site at jojostruys.com and please feel free to offer your comments, good or bad. I can learn from all of you…

And last but not least, a really big thank you to nuffnang for featuring me this month! Thx y’all! : )