Jason Om is an award-winning reporter with the ABC’s 7.30 program. Previously, he’s been a presenter on the ABC News Channel and a reporter for ABC News Breakfast, ABC Life, Lateline and ABC Radio. In 2017, he won widespread praise for his personal story about his dad’s 16-year struggle to accept him as gay. The article and TV piece ran Australia-wide, attracting a million views. Viewers were moved to tears, and the story earned Jason a nomination in the 2018 NSW (LGBTI) Honour Awards. All Mixed Up is his first book.
Today, Jason Om is on the blog to take on our Ten Terrifying Questions! Read on …
Jason Om
1. To begin with, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
I’m a Melbourne boy, born and raised in Oakleigh in the south-eastern suburbs. Back then, in the 1980s, it was a working class area. Now Oakleigh’s very trendy, but still proudly Greek. My mum and dad worked in factories to get by. I went to Catholic primary and secondary schools. My high school was an all boys college in Chadstone, or Chaddy as it’s known. In the 90s, that college was rough and tumble, but now it’s considered one of the top schools in Victoria. I now live in Sydney.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
Mum died when I was twelve, so my future career was the last thing on my mind. But by eighteen I was determined to become a journalist, having edited the student newspaper and written letters to the editor in The Age. Dad also worked as a radio broadcaster at SBS, so perhaps that rubbed off on me. I grew up around all sorts of radio contraptions. But when I was 15, I dabbled in a bit of TV acting and dreamt of being on Neighbours or Home and Away. Thankfully, I came to my senses and avoided that path; I reckon I’m a far better journo than an actor.
By the time I was 30, I was working as a radio correspondent for the ABC’s AM, PM and The World Today in South Australia. I’m very proud of what I achieved in that role and won accolades, but the bright lights of Sydney were luring me back, and I returned as a TV newsreader.
3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you don’t have now?
That everything would be a disaster! Mum’s death was cataclysmic, so my outlook on life as a teenager was pretty bleak. I thought I would always fail. I now know that life will throw obstacles at you from time to time and you just have to work out ways to dodge them.
4. What are three works of art – this could be a book, painting, piece of music, film, etc – that influenced your development as a writer?
I have to say that reading 1984 by George Orwell in high school was a life changing experience. It really opened up my mind, and led me to the belief that our freedoms are worth fighting for.
In my memoir All Mixed Up, music played a big role. I listened to my favourite artists from when I was a teenager to transport me back to that time. Alanis Morissette, Garbage, Third Eye Blind, among others.
I also drew inspiration from Alice Pung’s work. She’s a fellow Cambodian Australian from Melbourne and writes about a similar milieu to the one I grew up in. I’m so grateful to her for providing the endorsement quote on the front cover of All Mixed Up.
‘The heart of the story is about our capacity to love and accept each other’s differences.’
5. Considering the many artistic forms out there, what appeals to you about writing a memoir?
What I love about memoir is that no matter who’s telling the story, there’s always something to learn from them. It’s an intimate form of writing, almost like diary writing. It lets people into private worlds. Most importantly, it’s real, it happened. Sometimes the most extraordinary stories are true ones.
6. Please tell us about your latest book!
Speaking of compelling true stories, All Mixed Up is my first foray into memoir. I’m used to writing short TV sentences when I’m reporting for the ABC’s 7.30 program, so it’s a big leap writing 328 pages.
All Mixed Up is about growing up in a mixed up family as a gay Asian Aussie kid. You’ll get to meet all the colourful family members: my Buddhist Cambodian dad, my late Catholic Eurasian mother and my Muslim half-sister from Malaysia.
The heart of the story is about our capacity to love and accept each other’s differences. It’s an epic odyssey that will have you laughing and crying and crying again.
7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?
Some people may already know my personal story after it went public back in 2017 during the same sex marriage debate. The article and TV story about Dad’s 16-year struggle with my sexuality resonated with many Australians, and I received a tonne of public messages. All Mixed Up expands on that story, and you get to witness the full lead up to, and aftermath of, that event. I take you back to my childhood in the 1980s, the grief of losing Mum at 12-years-old, and to Cambodia and Malaysia where I prise open my family’s secrets. I hope my memoir gets everyone talking and gives people the courage to take on life’s challenges head on.
8. Who do you most admire in the writing world and why?
Lately I’ve been thinking about all the Asian Australian writers who’ve hacked their way through the bamboo jungle. There’s a real momentum around Asian voices right now, particularly off the back of the #StopAsianHate movement, both in Australia and overseas. We need to keep that going. I tip my hat to newer voices like Jessie Tu, Yumiko Kadota, Mimi Kwa, and Melanie Cheng. I’m also grateful to veteran author Alice Pung and granddaddy Benjamin Law for clearing the way for the rest of us.
9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
I’d like to think I have a second book in me. I wouldn’t say writing a book was a lifelong dream – it came about organically, but becoming a published author has definitely inspired me to go further in the publishing world. Who knows what’s next?
10. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Don’t hesitate if you’re thinking of writing. Jump in and get started, the more you do, the better you’ll get. And don’t wait for the publishing industry to pay attention to you. There are different ways of crashing through the door.
Thank you for playing!
—All Mixed Up by Jason Om (ABC Books) is out now.
All Mixed Up
When Jason Om was just twelve, he witnessed his mother die of a heart attack. No one else was home and he blamed himself for her death.
So begins this unflinching memoir about coming of age in a 'mixed-up' Melbourne family. There was Jason's perfectionist Buddhist Cambodian father, his Catholic Eurasian mother, who seemed stricken by an inexplicable sadness, his Muslim Malaysian half-sister, his domineering grandmother, and various cousins, aunts and uncles on both sides...
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