6ABC’s Alyana Gomez Talks Trash TV, Schuylkill Traffic and Pickleball

Alyana Gomez from 6ABC / Photograph by Stevie Chris

6ABC recently launched the region’s first all-women newscast, with Alicia Vitarelli, Alyana Gomez and Nydia Han behind the anchor desk and Karen Rogers holding down the weather. We’ve previously interviewed Vitarelli, Han and Rogers, but this was our first chance to catch up with Gomez, who moved back to the area in 2022.

My full name is … Alyana Veronica Gomez. I don’t know where the Veronica came from. But the Alyana comes from the fact that my mom’s favorite actress was Ali MacGraw and her best friend’s name was Ana. So Alyana Gomez it was.

I was born in … Pennsylvania Hospital, lived in Northern Liberties until I was two, and grew up most of my childhood in Collingswood.

Anytime I go back to Northern Liberties now, I think … Wow, I wish we’d kept our house!

When I was a little girl, I wanted to grow up to be … a doctor and a singer and a dancer and a model.

The first concert I attended in life was … NSYNC in Camden in the late 90s.

I left the Philly area … in 2006, to go to college in Maryland. I wanted to go to Drexel and had scholarship money to do so. But then I got senioritis and let my GPA slip. Suddenly, Drexel said bye-bye.

My major was … biology, originally, with the intention of going to med school, but then chemistry kicked my butt, so I changed to a journalism track.

Alyana Gomez behind the 6ABC anchor desk (photo courtesy Alyana Gomez/6ABC)

I’m talking to you from … my car, stuck in traffic on the Schuylkill, as is so often the case. I was just doing a live shot in front of a grocery store in Bala Cynwyd of people stocking up for the Eagles game, and now I’m headed to my house on the Main Line.

My ethnic background is … Boricua, and proud of it! My grandmother still lives in Coamo, in the mountains of Puerto Rico, and I hope to get there again in 2024.

The furthest I’ve been from Philadelphia has been … Spain. I studied abroad there in college. Lived in Malaga for a few months. I almost made it from there to Morocco, but I was homesick. A couple of other kids decided to go and had a blast, but our teacher lost their passport in Morocco.

I came back to Philly … in 2022, after living and working in Jacksonville, the Bay Area and Seattle, and it’s been just what I needed. I was going through a stage of my life where I really needed familial support, and it’s been such a blessing to have them close by.

My two kids are always asking me to make them … lasagna. My kids love my lasagna. Otherwise, they want to go to Maggiano’s in King of Prussia.

To stay in shape … I have a personal trainer who will come at me in a heartbeat if she sees me doing anything unhealthy on Instagram Stories.

Alyana Gomez of 6ABC showing off the print version of our interview with her from the November issue (photo courtesy Alyana Gomez/Instagram)

My usual breakfast is … something frothy I’ll make with those Starbucks espresso pods.

Being a journalist in 2023 is … challenging, particularly compared to 10 years ago, when there was a much greater respect for our profession.

Starting the region’s first-ever all-women newscast has been … nothing short of inspiring. It’s exactly the lofty kind  of dream I had when I was in college. And now it’s a reality.

If you make me pick between Karen Rogers, Alicia Vitarelli and Nydia Han for a pickleball partner, I would have to pick … Karen Rogers. She’s got an incredible arm. I have seen her throw things with great precision. So Karen all day.

The best thing about my job is … meeting new people every day.

The worst is … having to constantly wear a dress and makeup.

One TV show I can’t stop binge-watching is … Love Is Blind, truly a guilty pleasure. Seriously, I can’t get enough of it. And it’s the only reality show I watch. You have 15 men and 15 women. They don’t know what anybody looks like. They only talk to each other through a wall. It all happens over ten days. If they decide to get engaged, then they get to see each other.

When I want to relax …  I do a self-care day complete with a massage and a nice bath surrounded by candles. It gets my head where it needs to be.

My biggest phobia is … claustrophobia. But I’m also very afraid of heights. And I’m not saying I’m technically arachnophobic, but if I see a big spider, I will light up a room with a scream.

The thing I obsess about the most is … whether I’m being a good mom. Work-life balance can be such a struggle.

Published as “One of Us: Alyana Gomez” in the November 2023 issue of Philadelphia magazine.