A TV reporter has shared a message for her younger self after losing her job on her 40th birthday.
Emmy-nominated journalist Ellina Abovian was one of several employees affected by layoffs at KTLA on February 25, ending a stint of roughly a decade at the station.
The cutbacks also included midday anchors Glen Walker and Lu Parker, weather anchor Mark Kriski, and meteorologist Kacey Montoya.
Adding to the sting, Abovian later revealed the timing coincided with her birthday — and not just any birthday, but her 40th.
For many people, turning 40 comes with long-planned celebrations and reflection. Getting laid off isn’t typically part of that picture.
Still, Abovian appeared to be keeping her outlook steady as she spoke on the podcast Breaking Through with Ellina Abovian.
During the conversation, she talked about what she’d tell herself at 21, urging her younger self to take up space and widen her world.
“Stop hiding. Stop shrinking. There’s a big world out there and you can be a part of it,” she said. “You don’t have to only exist within your Armenian community.”
She continued with a reminder about self-acceptance and the pressure she once felt to be “enough.”
She added: “Stop hiding your body, stop thinking you’re not good enough. You are so perfect in all your imperfections. If I could say that to my 21-year-old self and just say go for it. What are you waiting for.”
Abovian also said she’d want her younger self to choose exploration over comfort, and to be bolder about chasing what she wanted.
“I wish my 21-year-old self could have followed all her dreams,” she said. “I wish she could have gone out there into the world … and experienced more things instead of looking for safety.”
Looking at where she is now, she said 40 feels more grounded, and she has little desire to return to the uncertainty she remembers from earlier decades.
“But it’s easier said than done now being 40,”she shared. “So I’m going to tell myself that now as if you know it’s the 20-year-old in me and do the best with what I have in front of me today.
“We don’t get do-overs in life but we do get to be who we are right now and to be 40, to feel great in my own skin, to have come this far … great, let’s move through the world now with that certainty and stop trying to go back to 20 or 30.”
She added: “Those chapters are finished and I’m happy that they’re finished because it led me here.”