Recognition for years of blood, sweat and tears, and gratitude for a family who believed in her audacious dreams
LOS ANGELES, March 15, 2022 – ABS-CBN’s TFC News Hollywood correspondent Yong Chavez won the International Media Award at the 60th Annual ICG Publicists Awards. The winners were announced on March 10 at the awards luncheon at the Beverly Hills Hilton.
Asians represent
Chavez has been covering Hollywood for over 15 years now, and receiving the award on the same weekend as the 95th Oscar Awards where the triumph of “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once” was a breakthrough for Asian talent, was “wonderfully surreal.”
Chavez recounts that “For years I looked for any Asian talent at all the red carpets I covered. I put a spotlight on them and fought for their representation. So, to see them celebrated now in such a huge way and for my own humble award to coincidentally be given on the same weekend and same award season is mind-blowing to me.”
Recipe for success
Being on the red carpet and interviewing celebrities might appear glamorous to an outsider, but there is much hard work, perseverance, and a lot of rejection along the way.
Chavez shares that her recipe for success is to “always be the hardest worker in the room. But hard work isn’t enough sometimes. You have to work smart, so you don’t burn out.” She also adds a very important point: “be kind. The universe has a way of rewarding you back for anything you selflessly do for others. And remember always what matters most: your personal relationships and your respect for yourself.”
On the pursuit of dreams
Always an avid fan of movies and TV, Chavez read in a movie magazine once: “Nothing is ever too hard to achieve if you have the faith to believe in it and the courage to fight for it.”
She has always fought for her dreams. Unknown to most, Chavez’s full time job for more than 15 years until 2021 was as a TV/film English and Tagalog subtitle editor for the deaf and hard of hearing.
The flexibility in the schedule allowed her to cover Hollywood news for Balitang America (now TFC News), TV Patrol, and ANC. Chavez explains that “Flex time made it possible but note that I didn’t say ‘easy’. It was difficult, but I did it happily because reporting was my passion while the salary I received from the regular job went to my mom and my sister in the Philippines, especially when my mom got sick.”
When Chavez’s mother and sister passed in quick succession, she continued working the grueling schedule until the pandemic when “the great resignation/life reevaluation happened to so many people, including me. I quit the regular job, but then started joining organizations like the HFPA and the HCA which also kept me busy and helped me improve myself and my career in other ways.”
Photo courtesy of HCA
She muses, “It was a hard climb, but it was well worth it. I worked for my dreams. It was years of blood, sweat, and tears. But I didn’t do it alone. I have my family. I have my friends. And I have my ABS-CBN and TFC family who believed in me and my audacious dreams.”
The other entertainment journalists in Chavez’s category are Dan Jolin of Empire (UK), Garry Maddox of the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), Zachary Ntim of Deadline (UK), Helen O’Hara of Empire (Northern Ireland), and Adam Tanswell of Total Film (UK).
Read the ABS-CBN News report, and see the full list of winners and nominees from the 60th Annual ICG Publicists Awards.
