Ayesha Curry On Inheriting Hustle, Food As a Love Language, and the BLM Movement
Erez Sabag
Ayesha Curry, 31, a mom of three (daughters Riley, 8, and Ryan, 5, and son Canon, 2), knows that food has the power to draw people together and bring good into the world. She and her husband, NBA star Stephen Curry, created a foundation that aims to end childhood hunger. It has provided meals in Oakland, California, to those in need during the coronavirus pandemic.
At the same time, Curry has built a thriving lifestyle brand from her passion for cooking and feeding others. Fresh off the launch of her new magazine, Sweet July, with her second cookbook, The Full Plate, out this fall, she shares what drives her.
She inherited the hustle.
"My mom was a hairstylist and a business owner for 40 years. Watching her hustle, I think it's embedded in me. [People ask,] 'Why do you work so much? You don't need to.' But I'm like, 'No, I do need to, because it makes me feel good.' I thrive off having an idea and seeing it through to the creation."
I now have the strength to call the shots.
She speaks through food.
"Food is my passion. It's my love language: It's how I make people happy. It's what I think about every second—including my advocacy with my husband and my foundation, Eat. Learn. Play, which is fighting to end childhood hunger."
Resetting is spiritual.
"I've watched my mom be a praying woman all my life, and it has always given her strength. Prayer, for me, is a conversation by myself, with God, in my mind—sometimes out loud if I'm really stressed out."
Erez Sabag
Power comes from family.
"My children and my husband make me strong. As a mom, you can internally have bad days, but you can't have them outwardly, and that provides strength."
She sees Black Lives Matter as an opportunity.
"I go through so many emotions. Sometimes I want to cry. Sometimes, seeing people from all walks of life stand up for justice and fight for what's right, makes me feel like, Wow, people are inherently good, and the universe is giving us an opportunity to weed out the bad.
I think about my parents experiencing this, and their parents experiencing this, and I'm like, I don't want my children to have to experience this. There's this intense and innate need to make sure we see it through, so this doesn't continue. With Black Lives Matter, our oldest is asking questions, and we don't tiptoe around the answers. That is allowing us to raise really strong, independent, mindful children."
Photographer: Erez Sabag, @erezsabag // Photo Assistant: Tiffany Williams, @tiffanyolevia // Creative Director: Noah Dreier, @noahdreier // Photo Director: Toni Loggia, @toniloggia
