Justine Isaacs catches up with her full potential

Justine Isaacs is often classified as a walking ray of sunshine. She is as bubbly as she is short, and her beauty and brains have set her on a path of success in broadcasting, marketing and entrepreneurship. However, unknown to most, Isaacs has a journey of self-discovery where she struggled with familial dysfunction, financial shortcomings and a battle with her cultural identity and ethnicity.

Born in St Andrew, Jamaica, to a Chinese-Jamaican household, Isaacs learned from an early age the power of hard work.

“I grew up at home with my grandma, my dad and their side of the family, and I think that really shaped me into who I am. They were the shop Chiney. Their house was built literally behind the shop. They had two shops, a bar and restaurant, so the house was built behind there. It was very common, so basically I thought it was normal,” she said.

Adding to her story, Isaacs’ mom migrated to England before she was old enough to remember her, leaving her to be primarily raised by her father and grandmother, Rose.

During this period, she says she felt like an outsider, out of place, but lacked the skills to express what, unbeknownst to others, was eating her alive.

Even then, Isaacs always knew how to go through life with a smile. While at Campion College in St Andrew, Isaacs became known institution-wide for her bright disposition. Excelling both socially and academically, she concealed any sign of the struggle she was facing internally and created an identity for herself as ‘just Justine’.

“In high school I struggled a lot with my mental health. I guess not knowing my mom and not really knowing that side of the family, I turned to creativity as my area of comfort. I always dreamed of doing movies and making music and that kind of stuff. That was a part of something that was embedded in me that I really loved and I was excited about doing. But there was also a nervousness to it because it kind of went against what they (her family) would have wanted for me and went against my own concept of stability and steadiness.”

Things took a turn for the worst in 2012 when Justine’s grandmother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. This blow to the family left the then 16-year-old Isaacs in a downward spiral once again.

“It was really tough on me because before she passed away in 2021, she was really struggling with that. She was really sick and I had to of course help and chip in at home and nobody knows this. My friends didn’t know behind the scenes while I was showing up at school. I was doing myself a disservice being this smiley, positive, bubbly little girl going around as if the world is sunshine and rainbows and then behind the scenes I am literally struggling and going through it mentally because my grandma is dying,” she told The Gleaner.

Referring to this era as her “dark times”, she began to isolate and alienate herself from her friends. In recent years, she has been able to rekindle these friendships, but Isaacs says the loss of the only mother she knew will continue to weigh on her for the rest of her life.

Taking time to find her direction in life, Isaacs worked in marketing, advertisement, public relations, digital marketing, communications, fashion, and broadcast after graduating from high school.

Now having received a bachelor’s degree in business marketing and management, she is redirecting her energy into her latest endeavour Cafe Catch Up.

“I didn’t know what the name was going to be but I always wanted to do this. I always wanted to create content or something that was engaging or inspirational for people and I found it in the form of a podcast. I was watching a lot of podcasts and I decided to do something that would be unique and different,” she said.

Issacs continued, “ I guess catching up was just the theme that always followed me throughout and I felt like that would be it. I wanted it to be something that wouldn’t just be a podcast but could turn out to be everything at the same time because I wanted to go into entrepreneurship and I wanted to dabble in products and sales and that stuff.”

Partnering with Jacana Cafe and her two great friends, Felisceano Wright and Richard Stewart, Cafe Catch Up grew from just an online project to a registered company and brand.

“I feel like I am in the position now and planning the stages of next year to do so much more with Cafe Catch Up. Eventually, I want it to grow into being a great physical location that people will love and come together to build a community and be a network or a hub for people to share experiences, share knowledge, share lessons and inspire them to live a purposeful life.”

Summing up her journey thus far, Isaacs says, “It’s always been a journey of self-discovery. My slogan right now is really ‘catching up’. I really am the catch- up queen. Every phase of my life I just continue to catch up because life is life-ing.”

shanel.lemmie@gleanerjm.com