Ayesha Alexander is a Canadian–American chef, cookbook author, television personality, actress, and model. She has held several roles on multiple television shows and movies and began hosting her own show,… Click to show full abstract
Ayesha Alexander is a Canadian–American chef, cookbook author, television personality, actress, and model. She has held several roles on multiple television shows and movies and began hosting her own show, Ayesha’s Homemade (a.k.a. Ayesha’s Home Kitchen), on the Food Network in 2016. Her career in culinary kicked off in 2014 when she prepared her first meal as a YouTube demonstration on her channel Little Lights of Mine. Alexander’s official channel trailer for Little Lights of Mine was released on February 10, 2014, and received 620,000 views. Within the 55-s clip, Alexander describes herself as being a wife and mom to her daughter Riley. She informs viewers that the channel is about everything that brings light to her life, makes her passionate, happy, and joyful. The second episode of Little Lights of Mine aired on February 19, 2014, NBA All-Star Sunday, and received 2.7 million views. Throughout this episode, Ayesha takes viewers on a journey documenting her family’s entire day while in New Orleans for NBA All-Star weekend. It is during this episode that viewers are first introduced to her husband, NBA superstar, and champion Stephen Curry, guard for the Golden State Warriors. Despite Stephen Curry’s elite NBA champion and superstar status, Ayesha seemingly aspired to form, maintain, and reify an identity distinct from being “so-and-so’s” wife (i.e., “Stephen Curry’s wife”). Ayesha wrote the cookbook titled, The Seasoned Life, and published it in 2016, and has now introduced the Ayesha Curry Kitchenware brand. Ayesha’s branding of herself as an independent businesswoman in her own right, as an identity and image other than that of “Stephen Curry’s wife,” prompts attention to the notion of identity. Indeed, being the significant other to someone in the public eye – to a marquee player – might be perceived as a calling card to one wife, a potential albatross to another, or somewhere in between. How an individual creates, manages, and reifies identity in a performance sphere such as Twitter not only tells a story, but communicates a message to the viewers, listeners, and readers – a message that could undoubtedly impact and influence the consumer’s own identity. Thus, the purpose of the current study is to examine identity presentation and whether it is formed and expressed through the self, status of the sportsmen, or is constructed via mediated Twitter portrayals.
               
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