Tennis champ Serena Williams is on the cover of Teen Vogue‘s latest issue and the mum-of-one opens up on power, activism, and black girl magic.
Read excerpts from her interview below.
On her next challenge: In my next challenge, I definitely want to learn how to do some coding. I think that is really important for me, especially in my business, because my fashion brand is all online. It’s never too late to start. That’s something I want to do.
On how she manages her day to day: Honestly, I don’t know. I go to bed every night thinking, How did I get through this day? I’m sure a lot of people out there can relate, right? It’s like, this day is over, it’s 10 o’clock, I got through it. How did that happen? … I’m training on top of running this fashion company, on top of being a full-time mom. I’m super hands-on as a mom. I just take it as it is and realize that everyone goes through the same thing.
On being confident: I think it’s really important to realize that no day is going to be perfect. For me, that’s really hard because I strive for perfection, and I feel like everything I do has to be great and has to be perfect, because I am a true perfectionist. But that’s impossible. That’s not reasonable. Then I realize that, OK, I had a rough day today, let’s do something to make it better tomorrow. I think it’s important to expect to have some really rough times when you’re going through something, but always know that you can overcome it.
On giving other women of color a chance: I think it’s what Naomi was saying earlier, it’s just about having the conversation and starting. If you are just reading about it or maybe not knowing about it, then you can’t make a change. It’s definitely important to have that conversation, and then encourage people to support each other. Especially as women of color. We really have to support each other. I always like to say that women really should support each other, because the success of one woman should be the inspiration to the next. If we look at it that way, there would be so much more that we can accomplish.