Chimamanda on Eating Healthy, Shoes, And Her Obsession With Hair Blogs — Elle Magazine Q&A

February 16, 2014

You have to read this!

Last year, Chimamanda shared her philosophy on make up and cosmetics with the British-Zimbabwean actress Thandie Newton. If you missed it, read it {HERE}.

This time, in a Q&A with ELLE magazine, she shares a good bit on eating healthy, shoes, her obsession with hair blogs, and, of course, her novels and the writing life.

Apparently, Adichie isn’t a fan of the idea that “women who [want] to be taken seriously [are] supposed to substantiate their seriousness with a studied indifference to appearance.” A woman does not have to despise fashion to be taken seriously. So it’s not surprising that, as the Elle magazine writer puts it, Chimamanda “unapologetically loves clothes.”

Enjoy Reading.

“Do you dress for other people?”

I’ve just spent a few weeks in my ancestral hometown, [Aba, in Anambra State] which is quite conservative, and I don’t dress there as I would dress in Lagos or in London or in New York. I find myself looking for more conservative things to wear—but I quite enjoy it. I want to look in the mirror and like what I see, and increasingly it doesn’t matter so much to me what other people think of what I’m wearing.

On what it being called a feminist means to her:

It means that I am present in the world, and that I realize that there is a problem with the way we’ve constructed gender. The expectations on women that most of the world subscribes to—I don’t think we are born with them. I think we create them. I want a world where men and women have equal opportunities. I want a world in which the idea of a man being with man, and a woman being with a woman, doesn’t cause a form of obstruction to anything that they want to achieve in their life.

On Loving hair blogs

This is actually the reason I’m not getting much writing done, because I spend too much time on hair blogs! It’s ridiculous. And then there’s the YouTube channels and I’m just watching all these women who are like, ‘I’ve just discovered a new Shea butter!’ [laughs] It’s hilarious.

“Do you like to cook?”

When I’m in a good mood I like to cook. But I don’t like saying it in public because I find myself being resentful of the idea; “Now you will make a good wife. You can cook, right?” So when people ask me I go, “No, I don’t like cooking!”

I could eat lentils for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I like fresh salads. My brothers think I’m a bit of an Americanized health nut. This is not true—I just think people should eat well.

“You split your time between Nigeria and the US—is one more of a home than the other?