NBA Draft Host Malika Andrews on the 'Pressure to Be Perfect' in a Male-Dominated Industry: 'The Way You Look Is Picked Apart' (Exclusive)

ESPN’s Malika Andrews will be in the spotlight tonight as she hosts the first night of the NBA Draft — and she’s learned that it can be a ruthless place.

“I feel so much pressure to come across, especially as a woman in a male-dominated industry, as the most perfect me,” says Andrews, 29, who hosts the draft for the third time this year, after becoming the first female host in 2022. “The way you look is chosen. The way you present yourself is chosen.”

Malika Andrews hosts the 2023 NBA Draft with Adrian Wojnarowski.

Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty

Andrews, who has had to deal with ugly comments online, says she relied on a group of other women in her field who became friends and mentors, including veteran sports commentator Doris Burke.

“I’ve had to set boundaries for myself, and I try not to read the comments,” Andrews says. “I got very good advice from Doris. She told me that you know when you do something well, and you also know when something is left to be desired, so you should believe that and surround yourself with the right people who can give you that honesty, I also try to lean on to these real-life people.”

Malika Andrews with her friend and mentor Doris Burke.

Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty

When he needs to escape the pressures of his job, he turns to a stable near his home in LA, where he rides a horse named Val several times a week. “It’s a place where I can vent when everything seems overwhelming,” she says.

Malika Andrews photographed for PEOPLE, May 2024.

BETHANY MOLLENKOFF

It’s something she first found healing as a teenager, when she was struggling with mental illness. As a teenager, Andrews spent more than three years away from home in residential facilities, including a controversial wilderness therapy camp in Utah, receiving treatment for depression, anxiety and an eating disorder.

While in one of the institutions, she started riding a horse named Dante. “He was a firecracker of a horse, just a hint of danger and I fell in love,” she says of the horse. – Suddenly I had something to express my joy.

ESPN’s Malika Andrews reveals secret teenage trauma, including wilderness therapy: ‘So focused on survival’ (Exclusive)

ESPN’s Malika Andrews interviews LeBron James in December 2023.

Ethan Miller/Getty

Andrews continues to go to therapy and says that “even now my relationship with food is not perfect. It’s something I have to actively worry about.” Mental illness “is not a before and after, or something that happened and something you overcome,” she says. “That hasn’t been my experience. My experience is that it’s something you have to deal with every day.”

But she learned valuable lessons about resilience and empathy from her past.

“It’s about constantly showing up, even if you’re having the hardest days,” she says. “And be a little kinder to yourself and the people around you. The expectations we have, especially from women, are so high, and you have to remember that you usually don’t know what someone is going through.”

Malika Andrews photographed for PEOPLE in May 2024.

BETHANY MOLLENKOFF

If you or someone you know needs mental health help, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Textline at 741741 or visit Crisistextline.org.

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Source: HIS Education