Rising Above

Former BBC senior broadcast journalist Sharanjit Leyl shares how she is using her voice for good, from addressing mental health issues to speaking out about inequality, and the best practices for navigating social media

- Cheryl Lai-Lim

She was always a picture of poise and confidence as a producer and presenter of the BBC World News covering business, finance and politics, but “as a child, I was incredibly shy”, recalls Sharanjit Leyl. “In fact, in my first report card when I was in primary one at Henry Park Primary School, the teacher had written: ‘She’s too shy and whispers to the teachers.’”

Leyl spent most of her childhood “working hard to try and defy this notion of shyness”, but it was not until her teenage years, when her family moved to Washington DC for her late father’s job as a diplomat, that the need to find her voice was amplified. “I had to speak to all these people who had no concept of where I’m from or what my background is, so suddenly, having a voice—and especially one that represents the part of the world where I’m from—became very important,” she explains. “It was very difficult, but eventually, I began to gain confidence when I learned that people are, in fact, interested to hear what I have to say.”