Eboni Williams isn’t ashamed to admit that her good looks helped her get a leg up on her competition, in fact she’s owning it completely.
The “Fox News Specialists” co-host was raised by her single mother in North Carolina with modest means and got involved with beauty pageants at a young age for scholarship opportunities. Now Williams determination, ambition and good looks have earned her a spot on one of the top cable news outlets in the country.
(Photo by Mike Pont/Getty Images for OCRFA)
Williams discussed her upcoming book “Pretty Powerful” with the New York Post in a recent interview in which she discusses the role that her appearance played throughout her young, professional career.
“I really struggled with reconciling caring about what I look like–because it matters, particularly as a woman–and being professional and very aggressive in my ambition,” she told The Post. “I felt like a walking conflict.”
Williams graduated from Loyola University law school at age 23 and realized how her looks played a part in the professional world and in the court room long before she became a well-known television personality. (SLIDESHOW: The Best Looking News Anchors On Television)
“I had a female mentor who told me it was OK to be concerned with my aesthetic. It was actually beneficial to my clients,” Williams said “You are always representing something at all times with your appearance,” she added, “[whether it’s] your client or business entity.”
Williams carried that experience with her into her television career and admitted that her physical appearance definitely played a part in future job interviews and opportunities.
“Grab the attention of everyone in the room with your physical presentation,” she says, “and then blow [them] out of the water — via a job interview, work presentation or trial argument — with what you say.”
(Photo by Mike Pont/Getty Images for OCRFA)
The 28-year-old talking head got her start with Fox News on “The O’Reilly Factor,” and although she can’t be sure how much her looks were weighed in her hiring, she’s pretty certain it was taken into account.
“I can never know the exact determining factor in being extended that offer, but I am certain if I didn’t ‘look the part,’ I would not have had the opportunity to have that conversation about my other, more merit-based qualifications,” she writes in her upcoming book.
Williams even recognizes that the title to her book, “Pretty Powerful” will raise some eyebrows, but there’s more to it.
“I think if they just read the title [they’ll find it controversial]. The initial reaction will be, ‘Yeah, a beauty queen who works at Fox News,’” she says. “But let’s go deeper.”
