Teyana Taylor is athletic by nature, born with an athletic frame. “I love sports. From streetball to football, we played it all growing up,” she reminisces in an interview with ESPN. “And almost everyone in Harlem thinks they can play basketball.” When she arrived on the music scene at sixteen-years-old, her staple look was the tomboy vibe- oversized jeans, loose-fitting shirts and high-top sneakers, not wanting her body to define her, but rather her talents.
Fast forward, nine years later, she’s evolved into a woman who is self-aware and confident in her personal appearance. “It went from just always loving to wear Air Jordans, to knowing that I look good in a cut-off shirt,” Taylor says with a giggle in the interview. “I became a mom, and as a person, I’ve changed a lot. I feel like I’m becoming a better me. I want to inspire other new mothers. However, I don’t want them to feel like, ‘I have to be on this treadmill for a whole hour to get this body,’ based on what they see in the media.”
How did she get her chiseled physique, that she showed off during her cameo in Kanye West’s ‘Fade’ video and during her “Flashdance” performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, especially after having just given birth eight months prior? Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t through diet or going the gym, or other traditional forms of working out. Instead, Taylor relies on her number one passion to keep her in shape.
“Dance is my form of exercise. That’s literally all I do. There’s no running. There’s nothing special. Just dance. I really think that people underestimate [the art form] as a workout. And it’s done my body good,” she explains. “I toured until I was about four months pregnant. Probably almost halfway through my [gestation], I stopped dancing and took a break to have Junie.”
On her quest to inspire, Taylor’s developing a dance workout DVD, set to be released by the close of 2016. “I just want the ladies to feel sexy.” In addition to the DVD, the multi-talented performer has got a pipeline of projects in the works. She will walk in Kayne West’s fashion show for New York Fashion Week, she is releasing her third sneaker with Reebok on October 7th, she was added as a guest on VH1’s “Hip Hop Squares”, and has a recurring role on the network’s scripted drama, “The Breaks”, which explores the early 1990’s rap scene. In addition to her already busy schedule, Taylor is also working on her own album in between. Now that’s one busy new mom!
See more pictures of Teyana and daughter Iman Shumpert Jr. visiting the set of Extra Tv.
