Ever since making her professional tennis debut in the mid-’90s, Serena Williams has consistently used her voice to call out systemic prejudice, both on the court and off – pushing aside myriad racist, sexist obstacles to win a mind-boggling four Olympic golds and 23 Grand Slam singles through the years.
“Underpaid, undervalued,” British Vogue’s November 2020 cover star reflects of the uphill battle she had to fight to become one of the most decorated tennis players in the world. “[But] I’ve never been a person that has been like, ‘I want to be a different colour’ or ‘I want my skin tone to be lighter.’ I like who I am, I like how I look, and I love representing the beautiful dark women out there. For me, it’s perfect. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Naturally, however, 2020 has been a fraught year for the tennis champion and mother of one – with the death of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests causing her to reflect even more deeply on the injustices faced by the African-American community in the US since the dawn of the slave trade.
“Now, we as Black people have a voice – and technology has been a huge part of that,” she tells fashion news director Olivia Singer from her home in the Hollywood Hills. “We see things that have been hidden for years; the things that we as people have to go through. This has been happening for years. People just couldn’t pull out their phones and video it before… At the end of May, I had so many people who were white writing to me saying, ‘I’m sorry for everything you’ve had to go through.’ I think for a minute they started – not to understand, because I don’t think you can understand – but they started to see. I was like: well, you didn’t see any of this before? I’ve been talking about this my whole career. It’s been one thing after another.”
For her part, Williams is doing all she can to change the status quo – including working tirelessly to promote marginalised voices through her venture capital firm and her size-inclusive fashion label, Serena. “Tennis is a small play in the whole scheme of things,” she muses. “In this society, women are not taught or expected to be that future leader or future CEO. The narrative has to change. And maybe it doesn’t get better in time for me, but someone in my position can show women and people of colour that we have a voice, because Lord knows I use mine. I love sticking up for people and supporting women. Being the voice that millions of people don’t have.”
Her greatest inspiration? Her three-year-old daughter Olympia, who has given her a renewed appreciation for her own body. “How amazing that my body has been able to give me the career that I’ve had, and I’m really thankful for it. I only wish I had been thankful sooner,” she says. “It just all comes full circle when I look at my daughter.”
Increased visibility and representation in the media has helped, too. “When I was growing up, what was celebrated was different,” Williams continues. “Venus looked more like what is really acceptable: she has incredibly long legs, she’s really, really thin. I didn’t see people on TV that looked like me, who were thick. There wasn’t positive body image. It was a different age.”
And in spite of all of the traumas brought up by 2020, the 39-year-old remains optimistic about the future – leaning on a tight-knit group of friends including Oprah, the Duchess of Sussex, and Beyoncé to keep her spirits up; push for change; and help her stay true to herself. “I’ve never been like anybody else in my life, and I’m not going to start now,” she says. And not only tennis, but the world, is a better place for it.
The November issue of British Vogue is on newsstands on 9 October.
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