Of course we know how special Jana Shortal is - and now we're sharing her with the rest of the country. NEW YORK — KARE 11's Jana Shortal is telling her story to a broader audience this week. The "Breaking the News" anchor took on New York City on Tuesday, making an appearance on NBC's "TODAY" show. The anchors wanted to hear her story about gradually coming out and coming into her own - on TV - and challenging the norms of the traditional television anchor appearance. Of course, KARE 11 viewers already know how special Jana is. So it was a fun experience to share her with the rest of the country. She and her producer Nikki Muehlhausen, of course, had some time to explore NYC on Monday ahead of the show. But when Jana appeared on the show, things got more serious, as she shared her story first of fear - then of empowerment. Jana told TODAY that when she began hosting "Breaking the News" in 2016, she did something scary. She dropped the blond hair, heavy makeup and traditional clothes - and looked like herself. And she found that people began thanking her for “showing us that there’s a different way that women can dress.” PHOTOS: Jana Shortal takes on the TODAY show 1/16 2/16 3/16 4/16 5/16 6/16 7/16 8/16 9/16 10/16 11/16 12/16 13/16 14/16 15/16 16/16 1 / 16<doc-sep>When journalist Jana Shortal landed her first on-air reporting job in the early 2000s, she wore the unofficial “uniform” of many female news anchors: makeup, straightened hair, manicured nails and high heels. Inside, Shortal was struggling. She had recently realized she was gay, but she wasn’t publicly out yet. She feared that if she dressed how she really wanted to on camera, viewers wouldn’t accept her. “I didn't know anybody in television that was an openly gay woman,” Shortal, 41, told the 3rd hour of TODAY. “So I best keep my mouth shut. Right?” For a while, Shortal continued to play the part of a traditional female TV journalist, dyeing her hair blond and wearing jewelry and heavy makeup. Shortal (right) felt pressure to maintain a certain look to keep her on-air job. Courtesy Jana Shortal Meanwhile, off camera, she was slowly coming out to friends and family, and wearing clothes that better reflected her authentic self: ties and pocket squares, jeans and sports coats. “At some point, at least for some people if they're in the right community and they have people who love and care about them, slowly but surely, you start to come out,” she said. Still, for years, she maintained her more traditionally feminine style on camera, worried that if she switched up her look, her TV career might suffer. That all changed in 2016, when Shortal landed her own show, “Breaking the News,” on NBC’s KARE 11 affiliate station in Minneapolis. Can you please tell her - she is my hero. For some of us it takes a lot of guts to wear what we are comfortable in. (2 of 2 pics) pic.twitter.com/Y1m0P94e9b — janashortal (@janashortal) February 28, 2019 When she began hosting her own show, Shortal decided to make a bold move. With the support of her station, she began dressing in a way that made her feel truly comfortable, beginning on her first day of hosting. “I wore a David Bowie T-shirt, a pocket square and a black blazer with curly hair and glasses,” Shortal told TODAY. “And not because it's a look and I'm trying to be somebody. That's what I wear.” Shortal hopes to be an example for others to proudly wear the clothes that suit them best. Courtesy Jana Shortal After she debuted her new look on air, Shortal said many viewers wrote in and thanked her for “showing us that there’s a different way that women can dress.” Some viewers have even been sending her vintage handkerchiefs that she can wear as pocket squares. Random beautiful viewer kindness strikes again. Thank you for the beautiful handmade hankies Charlotte. #btn11 pic.twitter.com/spa2VLzhAP — janashortal (@janashortal) March 1, 2019 Now, Shortal hopes to inspire people struggling with their own identities. She hopes people will watch her and realize they don’t have to present themselves according to rigid societal norms. “Maybe because of me, somebody will watch and say, ‘I want to do that,’” she said. “And they won't think that they have to be somebody else because they saw me.”<doc-sep>
Bring Me The News Jana Shortal's journey to being herself on television has attracted more interest from the national media, this time from NBC's "TODAY" show. Shortal, who works for NBC affiliate KARE 11, appeared on the morning show Tuesday to talk about the personal struggle she went through not only to come out as gay, but to come out as Jana on Twin Cities TV screens. The broadcaster featured last month in a CNN segment about how she defied TV norms and went against the conventional notion of how a female TV anchor should look when she debuted as the co-host of KARE 11's "Breaking The News" in 2016. Her story was re-told in The Today Show segment which you can watch here: Shortal then spent some time on the air with the Today Show team talking about her experiences and addressing the comments that women in the news media get about their appearance. No stranger to troll comments herself, Shortal tries to set an example for others in the way she reacts to criticism. "There are a lot of people online who are just out to hurt people and they do it to get noticed," she said. "And I just imagine they're hurt on the inside." Tweeting after the show, Shortal wrote: "This was the morning of a lifetime. I am so grateful & humbled. To be able to be who I am and sit on the set of the TODAY show was beyond my wildest dreams." Follow Bring Me The News on YouTube