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Ayesha “Ishiboo” Curry met her husband,Steph Curry, the “baby faced assassin,” and Golden State Warrior when they were 14 and 15 in a church youth group in North Carolina. Years later, they reconnected in Los Angeles where she was living as an actress, and the two married in 2011. At his 2015 MVP speech this year, Steph gave Ayesha a round of applause for being his “backbone.”

In some respects, Ayesha is like any other young, millennial mom. With one toddler on the set and another on the way, working on her business, and trying to eek out quality time with her family in a day of social media distraction, she is fairly typical (and tired) like the rest of us.

Obviously, what sets the Currys apart is that her man is freaking Steph Curry, well on his way to basketball legend status; her daughter’s toddler antics recently became social media fire; and one of her family videos spoofing Drake’s 0 to 100 (the original song just happened to name check her husband) has more than a million views. So there’s that.

HelloBeautiful spoke with Ayesha the day after Golden State opened up a can of whup ass on Cleveland in the first game of the 2015 NBA Finals. We touched on everything from Riley’s hair, to her new business and how she got started. After last night’s highly-physical, nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat show down that yet again went into overtime, we had to know first and foremost, how does Ayesha ride the emotional roller coaster of the NBA finals?

“I’m eight months pregnant, so I’m just trying not to go into labor at this point,” she says. But all jokes aside, Ayesha revealed that she actually went into pre-term labor with her first pregnancy, so she’s trying to take it easy while being supportive.

“It’ll be game time decisions for whether or not I travel, depending on how I’m feeling. I went into preterm labor with Riley, and these baby’s due dates are the same, almost to the day.”

Speaking of Riley, the willfully beautiful green-eyed-bandit who stole our hearts during her dad’s post-game press conferences, what was going through Ayesha’s head as her daughter hammed it up for all the world to see?

“I was just hoping she didn’t pull that curtain down,” says Ayesha, who said she had no idea that her daughter’s appearances would go viral. “Honestly, it’s been a little bit overwhelming and slightly scary for me as a mom, but we’re taking it in stride, and she’s safe with us, so it’s fine.”

As for the slight backlash Steph, and by extension, she, got, Ayesha didn’t mince words. “I thought it was silly, because it’s not a normal situation, to be in a room full of cameras with your child. So I just feel like it was silly for anybody to really pass judgment on our parenting skills,” she says. “[Golden State] won, and so he wanted to enjoy the moment with his daughter. I didn’t see anything wrong with it.”

Ayesha recently penned an essay for Time Magazine, further defending her husband’s choice to bring Riley up to the podium with him.

“I thought it was beautiful for him not to push his daddy duties to the bottom of the list just because all eyes were on him,” she wrote, boldly shutting down their critics. “I believe you should let your children be children, and don’t be afraid to be a parent, regardless of who’s watching.”

Riley is no stranger to the camera, as she is often the star of her mom’s YouTube vlogs or Vine posts, and featured prominently on the website Ayesha started in a little over a year ago. Ayesha said Riley was actually the inspiration for the site, calling it Little Lights of Mine, both as a play on the hymn, and as a nod to all the things that make her happy – food, family, fun.

“After having my daughter I kind of made a career change, and so I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do where I could be home with her and still have something for myself,” explains Ayesha. “So I decided to start the blog just as a place where I could share all of my recipes, because I love to cook. It’s everything that brings light into my life and makes me happy, or things that interest me, so it was Little Lights of Mine.

Little Lights Of Mine offers an intimate look into the lives of the Currys, and the YouTube channel of the same name puts this mommy-blogger-extraordinaire in her element, elevating staples like lemonade, fresh baked bread and salmon to another level. The videos and posts provide an intimate, and often light-hearted look at life and motherhood, delivered in a down-to-earth and easily accessible manner (“Nobody has time to fuss around,” she says). Also, if you think the Currys are capable of anything staid or too serious, think again.

“We’re huge goof-offs. We don’t take much of anything too seriously,” continues Ayesha. “Steph and I have always been super silly, even growing up individually in each of our families, we were kind of the goofballs of the bunch. So together, I feel like it’s just a hundred times more ridiculous.”

It’s no wonder that Riley, who is often featured on the site, cuts up just a little bit in front of the cameras. Other than a great sense of humor, which Riley gets honestly, Ayesha says she has some very distinctive wishes for her daughter.

“I would love to instill in her to be fearless, unapologetic, and just true to herself, especially nowadays with social media [and its instant judgment and criticism.] I hope she learns to take all that stuff with a grain of salt,” says Ayesha.

“Also, as a young black woman, I hope she just learns to love herself. Even with her curly hair, I’ve noticed some comments, and I think her hair is beautiful, and I hope she grows up loving it. She talks about her hair all the time, and she says that she loves her curls, so I hope as she gets older she embraces that and doesn’t let anybody tell her differently.”

Stay tuned for part 2 of our exclusive interview, where we’ll delve deeper into how faith informs everything that happens in the Curry household, how Ayesha learned to embrace her unique name, what Steph got her for her birthday this year (totally not what you’d expect), and the one thing that all young couples should have.

SEE ALSO: Steph Curry Took His Team To The NBA Finals, But We Can’t Take Our Eyes Off  Ayesha & Riley

For 2024’s iteration of MadameNoire and HelloBeautiful’s annual series Women to Know, we knew we wanted to celebrate the people who help make the joys of film and television possible. To create art is to create magic. This year, we spotlight Hollywood Executive’s changing the face of cinema.