It Figures is Yahoo Life’s body image series, delving into the journeys of influential and inspiring figures as they explore what body confidence, body neutrality and self-love mean to them. Read past interviews here.
Tia Mowry is no stranger to receiving feedback about her body from social media trolls or in tabloid headlines. But the 45-year-old actress says that negative comments about her body (or other people’s bodies) aren’t made in her household, and never were.
It’s a boundary that is particularly important to her while she raises her two children: 12-year-old son Cree and 5-year-old daughter Cairo, both of whom she shares with ex-husband Cory Hardrict. Luckily for Mowry, it’s also a reality of the home that she grew up in, something she’s still grateful for.
“Growing up, I loved that I had, and still do [have], a family that focused more on positivity and experience and love,” she tells Yahoo Life. “It wasn’t, you know, about what you look like. It’s more about how you feel.”
The former Sister, Sister star credits much of that to her family’s culture around food, which was all about appreciation and never shame. “Food to me was never something that I saw as negative. It was something that was the center of my family. It was the heartbeat of my family,” she says. “We were able to build and create wonderful memories around food, and I’m very grateful to have had a family that looked at it that way.”
That relationship with food is something that’s been passed down from generation to generation, as her family of Caribbean descent still reminisces about how their favorite dishes were introduced to them and how they’ve evolved. (Her favorite, she notes, is collard greens.)
“My family grew up eating vegetables that were canned. You … cook with what was in front of you, what was given, what you had access to,” she shares. “I think the positive thing about that is no matter where we were financially, where we lived, my mother always made a way to put dinner on the table. At the same time, as I got older, I was now able to share with her some of the new ways of cooking that I learned. For example, eating with fresher ingredients.”
This evolution of family recipes is exactly what she’s aiming to capture as host of the new culinary competition streaming series Not Like Mama. It’s a perfect fit for Mowry, who says, “I’m a nurturer at heart and food is how I love. It’s part of my love language. It’s how I communicate.”
Contrary to her new show’s title, however, the cookbook author and former child star hopes that her children adopt the same philosophies that she has around her body and food.
“Since becoming a mom, I have been extremely intentional. Eating for me is an experience and it’s how it makes me feel. … I feel like I am nurturing myself, I feel like I am taking care of myself. So therefore, I have this great relationship with myself and the food that I’m eating,” she says. “I want my kids to feel the same way.”
Gary Rose is a lifestyle connoisseur who celebrates the art of living well. She explores topics ranging from travel and fashion to home decor and culinary delights. Gary’s passion for aesthetics extends to her hobbies, which include photography and interior design.
