Whatever the weather
Jessica Braithwaite has come a long way from the shy Mount Gambier girl who was bullied at school and thought she wasn’t “pretty enough” for television. Through her new children’s book, the weather presenter, songwriter and mother-of-two explores life in all its seasons.
From uncontrollable bouts of the giggles to holding back tears, Jessica Braithwaite has overcome plenty of “wobbles” while presenting the weather to South Australian viewers over the past decade. But the most challenging of all was keeping her sunny disposition on live television while fighting the nausea of persistent morning sickness.
“One day, I was doing live weather crosses from Botanic Park and feeling so nauseous that I had a bucket just off to the side of the camera,” Jessica says.
“I was trying to be pleasant and happy on air, while all I could think was, ‘Please don’t vomit’. I spent that afternoon laying down in the back of the crew car in between reports, trying to hold it together. Whatever happens on live TV, you have to roll with it.”
The 9News presenter made it through those crosses without incident and later announced her pregnancy to colleagues and viewers. “You don’t want to announce you’re pregnant until you feel ready within yourself, and I had to secretly tell our wardrobe assistant so she could help me with the right outfits.
“When I’d turn to point to Perth on the weather map, I’d try not to turn too far to the side, or my baby bump would become too obvious,” she laughs.
“It was great when we announced it because the viewers enjoyed following along. Other mums often tell me that we were pregnant at the same time, and it’s been nice to share the journey with them.”
Today, Jessica balances her career with daily challenges of being a mum to children Donovan, 6, and Joan, 4. But whatever’s happening off-air, she takes pride in putting it all aside to deliver viewers a dose of sunshine.
“After someone’s been watching all the awful things that can be in a news bulletin, the opportunity for me to provide a change in gears is something I take quite seriously. You get very good at compartmentalising whatever you’re going through personally to do that,” she says.
When SALIFE meets Jessica shortly before her daily hair and make up appointment at 9News, it’s clear that her bubbly, down-to-earth persona is not an act. Today, it’s not the cameras she’s thinking about, but a lullaby she’s writing to accompany her first children’s book, Whatever the Weather We’re in This Together.
“I was just last night listening to the melody that we’re working with, and I got teary because I can imagine parents holding their children and singing the lullaby,” she says.
The book is co-authored by her friend, author Rebecca Ralfe, with illustrations by New Zealand artist Laura Bee. “I hope someone else might read it to their children and share the message of unconditional love; that no matter what you’re going through, I love you, rain or shine.”
Whatever the Weather encourages families to celebrate all seasons, which Jessica believes is important in an era when children are spending less time outdoors. “I’m passionate about kids being outside, and that comes from my own upbringing, having access to nature through all the elements. That sparked this idea for the book, which uses weather as a lovely metaphor,” she says.
“We really do celebrate the seasons at home. I’ll say to the kids, ‘Go and find me 10 signs of spring’ and they’ll run around the yard collecting blossoms. We were recently out collecting hail – such a fleeting treasure – and in autumn, we’ll collect leaves and make nature art. The weather is fascinating for kids, and we can forget that as adults.”
Jessica developed her love of the outdoors while growing up with her three brothers in Mount Gambier, surrounded by the beauty of the region’s national parks and lakes.
“Dad would take us hiking in the Grampians, and he would often say, ‘Braithwaites always climb to the top of mountains!’ My brothers and I joke about it now, but my parents did instil a real sense of adventure in us,” she says.
“There’s also something about growing up in a small town. It’s a feeling of coming from a grounded place with a strong sense of community. Mount Gambier will always be home no matter where I am; it’s in my blood. We were ‘townies’ but my first high school boyfriend was a farmer, so I used to help milk cows and that kind of thing. It’s not until I look back that I realise I was so lucky; I had the most beautiful childhood.”
But the journey to become the effervescent Jessica Braithwaite that South Australians know today hasn’t been easy. Reflecting on her youth, Jessica says she was made to feel like a “loser” – a word that still elicits an emotional response today. “I was bullied a lot at school. Even just saying that today still hits hard, because I really felt that I was a loser,” she says.
“It (bullying) does cut deep, and people might not realise the long-lasting impact it can have. But I also think that being bullied can give you grit and determination which you can use to your advantage.”
A key moment of personal growth came when Jessica attended a youth writers camp, hosted by the late children’s author John Marsden. “I loved books and would get in trouble as a kid, because when it was time for lights out, I would be under my doona reading with a torch. I always wanted to be a writer, but it wasn’t seen as cool. The camp helped me to understand that there were other kids like me – I wasn’t the only one,” she says.
“After the camp, we formed our own group called the Cosmics, started a little magazine and kept writing to one another. I found my people who also loved writing, and we could do that together. It was self-affirming.”
Jessica has kept a diary since school and still writes her thoughts down every day. She has also followed her passion of music ever since picking up the guitar during Year 12. “Writing is how I process things, and music is the same. Writing a song is very therapeutic, and it’s always been a part of my life,” she says.
As a talented young tennis player, Jessica went to boarding school at Loreto College for years 11 and 12, primarily so she could train with the state tennis squad. But she was so shy that she would go an entire day of school without saying a word to anyone. “Some of the people who knew me then see me now and ask, is that the same person?”
An example of how far she’s come, Jessica now presents at the Adelaide International Tennis each summer, rubbing shoulders with stars such as Novak Djokovic. “It is a full circle moment for me when the crowd’s going wild and I’m there on the microphone. I also get the opportunity to lament my failed tennis career,” she laughs.
A love of writing and an interest in people led Jessica to study journalism and international studies at UniSA. This included a transformative semester studying photography and documentary-making in Santiago, Chile, where she also did some volunteer English teaching. It was a bold move for an introverted young woman from Mount Gambier.
“Santiago was a big and loud city. It wasn’t the modern metropolis it is today; it was a huge culture shock for me. I did feel homesick, and I did really struggle with the language, but it was one of the biggest growth periods of my life,” she says.
Jessica broke into the media as a newspaper journalist in regional Victoria. “I still remember driving out to a farm for one of my first interviews and thinking, ‘How lucky am I, getting paid to be out here talking to people and writing their stories?’”
She then moved to Alice Springs to get her start in television. “I thought it would be great to work in television, but I was quite self-conscious. I didn’t think I was pretty enough to be on television, and that I didn’t look the way normal presenters look. I had a lot of self-doubt,” she says.
“Many people go to Alice Springs to get their start in whatever field they’re in and I loved it there.” It was in Alice Springs that she made good friends with anthropologist Rebecca Ralfe, co-author of Whatever the Weather, and became more confident in front of the camera. “My career has taken quite a rambling, rollicking route to get where I wanted to go,” Jessica says.
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Jessica worked at channels Seven and 10, before following her passion for the environment. She moved to Sydney to work at The Weather Channel while studying meteorology and climate science. “Then I turned 30 and thought ‘I need to do a bit more living and giving’. That was when I moved to Africa.”
Jessica looked up her aunty Sally Duigan – a nun who had moved to South Africa in the 1980s to teach. “Ofcolaco is a very remote village in the mountains on the border of South Africa and Zimbabwe. It’s harrowing what many young people go through there,” says Jessica.
“When the AIDS crisis hit, people started bringing their children to my aunty, saying, ‘I’m going to die, will you look after my kids?’ She helped develop an official group called the Holy Family Care Centre. It is an orphanage and health clinic.
“I emailed my aunty asking if I could go and help. I packed my guitar and when I got there, I was astounded by the capacity for joy that those kids had, given the traumatic things they’d been through. It was a real eye opener for me and has influenced how I parent my children today.
“We started a choir, and there was one particularly beautiful African lullaby that we sang, and we also sang some English songs they were familiar with. The great thing about music is that it is a language of its own.” Jessica also assisted in the health clinic, which provided medication for children with HIV.
After five months in South Africa, Jessica returned to Adelaide to take up the role of weather presenter at 9News, where she’s been for the past nine years. “It was a big culture change going into an environment where someone’s doing your hair and make up every day,” she says.
While exposure to other cultures helped broaden her perspective, Jessica also cites music as having shaped who she is today. She is particularly thankful for one close friend – Mount Gambier singer-songwriter Louise Adams – who helped pull her out of her shell.
“I was too shy to play guitar in front of anyone, and she said, ‘What if you face the wall and we’ll sit behind you, will you play for us?’ Then she took me down to the Grace Emily for my first ever open mic night and really encouraged me to do it. It was amazing to have someone like that come along at the right time.”
Jessica and her brother Sean formed an indie folk group which gained some success with Triple J and scored a gig at the Big Day Out. She has since released her own chart-topping solo tracks. In 2021, the Nine Network asked her if she would record a song for the Adelaide Christmas Pageant. “I said, ‘absolutely’, because I was a mum by that point, and I really do love Christmas,” she says. I Still Get Excited for Christmas went as high as number five on the iTunes Rock Chart.
“My friends tease me about how much I love Christmas. I start playing Christmas music – I’m embarrassed to admit this – in September. But I do my best to hold off until after the pageant,” she laughs.
Each November, Jessica also has “the best job in town” of welcoming Father Christmas when he arrives at the pageant’s completion, which will this year be at Rundle Mall.
It was about three years ago that Jessica began planning her first children’s book. For guidance, she reconnected with John Marsden – before he sadly passed away in late 2024 – and reached out to her old friend and author, Rebecca. Jessica saw the weather as the perfect medium to share lessons about life and parenting, and particularly that all seasons of life should be embraced.
“I think that somewhere along the line, we’ve been told that we’re always meant to be happy. As a weather presenter, it’s the equivalent of saying that it’s always meant to be sunny,” she says.
“The way you’re feeling right now is going to change, and that is normal and healthy. If it never rains, then the flowers would never grow, so we need that mixture of emotions, and that’s what makes us human. That’s what I hope to express through the book.
“Life is going to have stormy times. It is normal to feel sad, it is normal to cry, and those changing emotions are as normal as the shifting seasons, and it will pass. Sometimes we shouldn’t block it out, thinking we need to be sunny, and the weather provides a lovely metaphor in a way that children can understand.”
Looking back, Jessica is grateful for the ups and downs that have made her who she is, and this reflection gives way to an epiphany. The main message of her book – reassuring children that they are loved by their family – is one that was seeded in the Braithwaites’ Mount Gambier household many years ago.
“I hope that this book will spark that same joy and that resilience in other families. It’s a message that is so valuable in my own,” she says.
“It is a blast from the past to see photos of the awkward 13-year-old Jessica with braces and a Hanson t-shirt. If I could go back in time and give her some advice, I would say: ‘You’re not here to write anyone else’s story; you’re here to write your own story. So be proud of who you are and go for it.
“It’s only later that you look back and realise that the hardest parts of your life are often your biggest moments of growth.”
This article first appeared in the October 2025 issue of SALIFE magazine.
