This was posted Tuesday, March 7, 2017 by Rodney Ho on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
In 2015, Chattanooga school counselor Veronica "Pooh" Nash taped a commentary while driving her car about how she won't swim in the ocean because of sharks. "That's the shark's house. The shark has the right to eat you up when you're in his house. When chickens come in my house. Guess what? They get ate!"
A production company pitched a show to her and she taped a sizzle reel. TLC decided placing her front and center on a show called "She's in Charge" where she shows up in metro Atlanta homes and helps people solve their problems would work. It debuts Tuesday, March 7 at 10 p.m.
Pooh was her nickname since birth. "I was born fat and yellow," she said. "My mom thought I looked like a little Pooh bear. If you want to get my attention, you better say 'Pooh.' Veronica has too many syllables!"
She said she has always been outspoken and plainspoken. She provides advice for a living and has a degree in psychology.
"I'm on a common-sense crusade," Pooh said. "A lot of people lack common sense. People are just too close to the situation. They need that outside perspective. I'm not vested in it. I've always been the one to point out the elephant in the room."
But her style is more loose than Iyanla VanZant of "Fix of My Life" fame. "I am more lighthearted and I deal with lighter situations," she said. "It's a feel-good show and doesn't go as deep. I incorporate humor a lot of times and plenty of country grammar."
The episodes include her helping a woman overly obsessed with her dog, parents who are trying to get their adult daughter out of the house and a gay man who just came out to his conservative parents and has no idea how to break into the "gay" world.
She is the first person in her family to go to college. She has been able to mix with different people, understand different people's situations. She is able to navigate all types of kids as a school counselor. One time, she told a parent that her daughter was straight up "mean." The principal was appalled. The parent was nonplussed.
Pooh is married with a 12-year-old son Alden on the autism spectrum. "He shapes me every day," she said. "He's very high functioning." He didn't talk until he was seven but since then, she said he won't stop. She made sure the teachers in school don't treat him any differently than anybody else.
She enjoyed spending nine weeks shooting the show in metro Atlanta and staying in Buckhead except for one thing: the traffic. "Spaghetti Junction!" she said. "Too many interstates. Every time you see me driving on the show, I'm complaining about the traffic!"
TV PREVIEW
"She's in Charge," debuts at 10:02 p.m. Tuesday, March 7, 2017 on TLC
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