I was born in hospital with no doors, and now I've achieved my ancestor's wildest dreams

A woman overcame prejudice to achieve her ‘wildest dreams’. Jay Behrouzi-Sneade, 33, from Wavertree, was determined to succeed in her media career despite the obstacles put in her way.

Jay was born in the Philippines, before growing up in Ajman in the United Arab Emirates. Speaking to the ECHO, Jay said: “I was born in a hospital that didn't even have doors. They just had curtains to give the women giving birth privacy.”

During her upbringing, Jay said she was influenced by the pop culture of the 1990s to choose a different path than her family wanted. She said: “I'm from the Spice Girls generation. I was the target market for the narrative they were pushing of girl power, female independence and fighting for what you believe in. I'd say female pop stars raised me.

“The message that I received when I was a child about being a woman, especially being a girl in the Middle East in the 90s - my options were limited and my parents tried really hard to make it feel like my options were not limited, but it's still very much felt that way, especially being a Filipino-Iranian.

“I'm sure the white people in Dubai would say it's wonderful and amazing. And that's the reality of the white people in Dubai. That wasn't my reality.

“I paid attention to what was on TV at the time instead of everyone else telling me, no, you can't do this because you're a girl, you can't do this because it doesn't guarantee career success, you can't do this because it's off-putting, men won't want to marry you.”

“If there was any impact my upbringing had, it was a lot of obstacles and a lot of discouragement from my family for going into a creative line of work. But I fought for it anyway and here I am.”

Jay continued to gain experience in journalism. Then she met a Scouser in the UAE called Adam. She said: “I think it was 2011.

“Some really bad crisis hit, which is what led my husband to move out to Dubai for a job. That's where we met and we got married. We were there together for a few years until we decided it wasn't really the best option for our future.”

Jay and Adam moved to Liverpool, a city which Jay is very fond of. She loves living in the same area that George Harrison once did. She said: “I really enjoy being around Scousers. I just feel so at home here, even though I'm from the other side of the world.” Jay’s mother-in-law, Angela Sneade, volunteers at a foodbank in Anfield.

However, Jay believes much of the UK media has failed to talk to immigrants enough about their experiences, which she felt even more in the wake of this month’s racist rioting. She said: “I'm from the Filipino-Iranian - nationals of these countries don't often get platforms on Western media.

“The prejudice against those men in the mosque is the same prejudice towards me. That's my community. My father's Muslim. I grew up in an Islamic country. I don't wear a hijab, I don't wear modest clothes, but that is still very much my community. I still very much care about those people.

“It really matters for me to get some kind of message or piece of content across that just helps humanise us more because I think that's the problem - you don't really hear about things from our perspective, which is why it's probably really hard to humanise us because nobody knows what we're thinking. Nobody knows how we're feeling.”

Jay is hoping to do this through the BBC Sounds’ Audio Lab. The project has been specially designed to help support up-and-coming audio creatives, with the aim of advancing their creative development through building confidence and connection whilst enhancing their writing, recording, performance, and promotional skills.

Jay has been selected for the scheme to create a positive, food-science documentary. Jay seeks to understand the chemistry of cooking. Each episode will explore a different chemical principle, experimenting with Filipino recipes, talking to guests, and discussing the British-Filipino experience.

With the help of food chemists, Jay hopes to understand the science behind a ‘dash of this and a sprinkle of that’ and how it works together to create the food she loves.

She said: “I think the world is a really unfair place and we're all just trying to survive it, and it doesn't help when we're all fighting each other. If we like each other's food so much, why can't we like each other? If we like Indian food, why can't we like Indian immigrants?”

Jay will be joined by three other creatives, including Mia Thornton, from Toxteth, whose podcast will delve into how black culture has helped shape different music genres.

Looking back, Jay is proud of what she has achieved in her media career. She said: “Coming from a hospital that was falling apart and didn't have proper infrastructure, everything against me being a young girl in the Middle East at a point in time when female empowerment was very much something to be frowned upon being here now and producing a podcast, I’m very proud.

“Maybe some people won't want to hear it, but others will probably really, really be excited about it. I saw a quote from some graffiti on a wall that said, ‘I am my ancestors' wildest dreams’, and I am. I am the first woman on both sides of my family to be in a career that I chose for myself and to have a voice and have a platform that people are going to listen to.

“I am the first woman in my entire family to achieve this. It really does matter to me. The women in my family and everything the women have been through - they would burst into tears of joy if they could see me now. Especially my grandma from my dad's side. She was a refugee from Azerbaijan.”