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

The first woman to host an NBA Draft, Andrews, 29, says she rides horses to help deal with the pressure and improve her mental health — and to “exhale”

Malika Andrews photographed for PEOPLE in May 2024. PHOTO: BETHANY MOLLENKOF

ESPN’s Malika Andrews will be in the spotlight tonight as she hosts the opening night of the NBA Draft — and she’s learned it can be an unforgiving place.

“I feel so much pressure to show up, especially as a woman in a male dominated industry as my most perfect self,” says Andrews, 29, who is helming the draft for the third time this year, after becoming the first woman to host in 2022. “The way you look is picked apart. The way you present is picked apart.”

Malika Andrews hosting the 2023 NBA Draft with Adrian Wojnarowski. JEFF HAYNES/NBAE VIA GETTY

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

“I’ve had to put up boundaries for myself and I try not to read the comments,” Andrews says. “I was given really good advice by Doris. She told me that you know when you do something well, and you know when you have left something to be desired, so you should trust that, and put real people around you that can give you that honesty too. I try to lean into those real-life people for feedback.”

Malika Andrews with her friend and mentor Doris Burke.ANDREW D. BERNSTEIN/NBAE VIA GETTY

When she does need to escape from the pressures of her work, she turns to a riding stable near her home in L.A., where a few times each week she rides a horse named Val. “It’s a place where I can exhale when everything feels overwhelming,” she says.

Malika Andrews photographed for PEOPLE, May 2024.BETHANY MOLLENKOF

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

While in one of the institutions, she began riding a horse named Dante. “He was a firecracker of a horse, just a hint dangerous and I fell in love,” she says of the horse. “All of a sudden I had something to pour joy into.”

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ESPN’s Malika Andrews interviewing 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 that I have to actively care for.” 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 it’s something that you have to contend with every single day.”

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

“It’s about continually showing up even if it’s on your hardest days,” she says. “And being a little kinder to yourself and to people around you. The expectations that we have, particularly on women, are so great, and you have to remember that you usually don’t know what somebody is going through.”

Malika Andrews photographed for PEOPLE in May 2024.BETHANY MOLLENKOF

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