Culture
Serena Williams Reflects on Her Battle With Body Image During Childhood: ‘When Every Athlete Was Super Thin I Had Big Boobs, Butt’
Serena Williams shares body image struggles in her early tennis career
During an interview featured on the cover of NET-A-PORTER’s digital title PORTER, tennis champion Serena Williams, 44, looked back at the time in her career when she was confronted with the challenge of her different body type. “It was really tough because my body was different when I was playing the first 15 years,” she explained to the magazine.
“I had big boobs; I had a big butt. Every athlete was like super flat, super thin and beautiful, but in a different way. And as an athlete, I didn’t understand how to deal with that,” she continued.
Serena also said, “It does get to your mind. Yes, definitely. You think that you are large your whole life and when you look [back] you are like, I was fit. Yeah, I had big muscles. I didn’t look like these other girls but not everyone is like that.”
Serena Williams on how she protects her mental health by not looking at online comments
Serena Williams revealed that the comparisons and criticisms of her body image were so intense that they affected her deeply and as a result, she decided not to look at any comments about her. “When I was 17, when I won the Open for the first time, I made a decision right there. It was my first time, I was so young, but I said I am never going to read anything about me,” she said. “At the Open, there was so much good stuff, and I thought, I don’t want my head to get too big. I wanted to stay humble. I also thought that if it is negative, I don’t want to read it. I never really looked at an article after that.”
Serena Williams Resiliently Ignores Haters and Criticism as a Black Athlete
One of the main features of the 23-time Grand Slam champion, Serena Williams, which is also often highlighted by people, is her ability to resist the negative things that surround her. Thinking back on her experience as a black child in a predominantly white sport and one of the most successful sports in the world, she stated: “It’s just like, well, that comes with the negativity… If you have something nasty to say, come and wait in line. You need to go a long way back. It will take you a few days to get there. Take part in the crowd.”
Moreover, she said, “I don’t listen to the noise. Everyone has the right to have their opinion. How am I going to change someone’s mind by sitting here? If [you] don’t like me, then you don’t have to.”
Serena Williams on the Positive Changes to the Next Generation of Black Tennis Players
Serena Williams was very delighted that the environment is becoming better for the young Black tennis players like Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka. “It has changed,” she told. “No one is now calling these girls the [things] I was called. People used to say that we were like men, and all this other stuff.”
She added, “I will not allow anyone to put me down. I put enough stress on myself. The last thing I am going to let be done by someone else is that. But I am so glad that girls don’t have to go through it that much anymore. I mean, I think internet trolls are a different thing. So, you have that to deal with…”
