There’s something intriguing about Janice Petersen. She waves and shouts a warm hello at me when I walk into the photographic studio, not missing a beat as the camera clicks away. She clearly knows her way around the bright lights of a studio. Once we’ve settled in for our chat, I notice the ease and confidence of the woman sitting in front of me. She’s dressed in a leather jacket and smells incredible; I ask what scent she’s wearing and she whips out a bottle of Baccarat Rouge 540 by Maison Francis Kurkdjian – the ‘it’ fragrance that recently went viral on TikTok. She casually offers me a spritz, laughing. And that’s the thing about Janice: she’s beautiful and stylish, yes, but also smart, unconventional and down to earth in a way that you just can’t help but want to know more about her.
Each weeknight, you’ll find the stylish television presenter on SBS World News, reporting on the biggest stories of the day. “I love being a newsreader; it’s my dream job,” she says. “I get to work in a newsroom that has so much respect, is genuinely independent and I get to work with equals. I find it mentally stimulating and challenging in the best possible way.”
Going For It
Aside from her life in front of the camera, Janice shares that she’s equally at ease right now in her personal life at 45. “I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be and there’s a lot of power and freedom in saying that,” she says confidently. But that confidence wasn’t always there. The daughter of two South African immigrants, Janice, who was born in Australia, says she battled with insecurity when she was younger. “As a child, I had no ambition of being in front of the camera,” she recalls. “I was way too shy and self-conscious.”
However, after finishing a journalism degree in Newcastle, New South Wales, by chance she took an opportunity to be a weekend news presenter at the ABC. “I thought, you know what, I need to back myself,” she says. “I can read, I just need to make sense of the story and tell it. Don’t overthink it.” When she ended up getting that gig, she realised the importance of pushing herself out of her comfort zone.
“It opened so many doors – and you don’t want to have regrets. And here I am, reading the national news bulletin five nights a week.”
Mix And Match
Janice isn’t the only one with a bit of star power in her family. Her partner, Julian Hamilton, is one half of the popular electronica duo The Presets. “We’ve been together for 20 years and you’d think we’ve had enough time to get it together and get hitched, but neither of us have a desire to get married,” she says, laughing. “We have an incredibly strong bond. I’m a bit more freewheeling and he loves structure. It’s a good yin and yang: he brings out the best in me and I hope it’s the same for him.” I ask if they ever get recognised when they’re together and she brushes it off with a chuckle. “We’re not at that level of fame at all, but we do get recognised by very different people,” Janice says. “He gets the younger hipster crowd and I get the older more everyday people. Oh, and lots of Uber drivers!”
Training For Life
Sport, and specifically athletics, has always been a big part of Janice’s life, winning medals at state and national levels throughout her school years. “I was a very sporty kid,” she says. “If you had to ask anyone from school what they remember about me, they’d probably say she was a very fast runner or good high jumper.” Now, Janice loves watching her two girls, Odessa, 12, and Arkie, eight, take up a sport, like netball or soccer. “It’s a real thrill for me – I hope I don’t go too hard on the sidelines,” she says, smiling. “I just can’t help it; I have that competitive nature in me. I just love it when someone scores a goal or wins.”
Janice believes that being competitive has been a force for good in her life. “You can always do a little bit better,” she explains. “You train hard, you see how you improve and sometimes you come first and sometimes you don’t. You don’t always get the prize. But that’s what life is like. And, in the end, it’s always more rewarding when you know you’ve put in the hard work and left everything on the field.”
Girl Guides
As a mum, Janice says her biggest lesson has been how much she’s learnt from her kids. “You go in knowing the basics – you love them, you feed them, you clothe and look after them – but I never could’ve comprehended what they would offer me,” she shares. “Often, when I find myself in a tricky situation, I think of how they’d approach it. They guide me at times when I need it. They’re incredible girls with very different personalities, but they’re a lot of fun and I absolutely adore having them in my life.” Janice feels a big responsibility to help them become the best versions of themselves. “We’re having amazing conversations right now about being strong and independent and that the world is large enough for all types of personalities, big and small,” she says. “I feel very fortunate.”
Back In The Stride
If Janice’s winning nature is anything to go by, the fact that she recently took the leap to return to competitive athletics shouldn’t be surprising. “I found myself pushing my girls into athletics because that was my thing and, when the outcomes weren’t what I envisioned, I found it frustrating,” she says. Then the realisation came. “I didn’t want to live vicariously through them. So, I decided that instead of pushing them to do the things I’d like them to do, why don’t I back myself again and give it a go myself?” So, in April this year, Janice competed in the Australian Masters Athletics Championships in Brisbane. “I didn’t think about it too much; I just booked my tickets and signed up.” And she admits she was worried about not having trained enough; the thought of competing again sent her heart racing.
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“I was really excited, and I haven’t felt this for ages, but, unfortunately, in the end, it was a bit of a disaster,” she says, laughing. After a bout with COVID, she still managed to win a silver medal in the high jump. “I didn’t jump anywhere near what I used to jump. I had to come to grips with a body that didn’t do things as effortlessly as it once did. It’s the same body, but different.”
Finding Herself Again
Now in midlife, Janice is savouring getting back to what makes her happy. “Your 30s are just so busy with career and young children, your body isn’t your own, you’re keeping someone else alive and at times it feels like you can’t even take a breath,” she says. “There’s a lot to juggle and the last person you’re thinking of is yourself. There just is no time for self-love and nurturing. And that’s just how it is. I really felt like I had lost my sense of self and my identity.
Right now she’s really appreciating her 40s and being able to give herself some time to do what she enjoys. That’s partly why getting back into athletics was so important. “I think it’s interesting that I went back to my childhood and thought of what made me happy,” she ponders. Competing allowed Janice to live for now, something she says is vital for her. “When you live in the moment, you feel and experience more,” she says. And while she still has ambitions, “there’s nothing big missing in my life right now. I truly believe that I’m at a place in my life where I’m meant to be; I don’t have any regrets.”
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