Speaking to her co-hosts on the episode,The 43year old veteran anchor disclosed that she underwent the surgery almost 20years ago,she said " My secret dates back to –my hearts racing– it dates back to when I was 25years old and I was working as a local news reporter in Dayton, Ohio, I asked my news director over the holidays,"if anchors want to take vacations,could I fill in?" He said,' you'll never be on this anchor desk, because you're chinese".
"He said, let's face it, Julie, how relatable are you to our community? How big of an Asian community do we have in Dayton?' She recalled "On top of that because of your Heritage,because of your Asian eyes,sometimes I have noticed on camera when you're interviewing someone, you look disinterested,you look bored."
Not long after Chen started looking for another job,she ran into the same problem, "Her Asian Eyes". Chen's career was important to her so she took an agent's advice,and considered her options."My parents and I had a long conversation,about if it would be denying my heritage," she said my mom calls one auntie and my dad calls one uncle………it spread to my entire family. It divided the family. Members of my family wanted to disown me if I got it done."
Wanting to someday sit behind an anchor desk,she had the surgery anyway. And afterwards "The ball did roll for her career, she confessed, "And I wondered, did I give in to the man?"
Regardless Julie has no regrets. "No one's more proud of being chinese than I am," she told her co-hosts, "I have to live with the decisions I've made,….it got me to where we are today, and I'm not going to look back".
