Serena Williams is a global Woman of the Year, according to Glamour. Williams was honored alongside actress Pamela Anderson with the award this week as the subject of a cover story and accompanying photo shoot for the glossy women's magazine.
"The GOAT may be done with tennis, but she has her sights set on a new kind of international domination," Glamour teased in both the story and in its social media posts about Williams' honor which dropped on Monday, and also came with a humorous video of the former World No.1 debunking (or, endorsing) myths about tennis players.
In her accompanying interview with Mattie Kahn, Williams speaks candidly about her life as a renaissance woman after retirement, including how she keeps busy between motherhood and entrepreneurial endeavors, both her own and others' through her venture capital project, Serena Ventures. She also frankly opens up about the postpartum depression she experienced after the birth of her first daughter, Olympia, in 2017, and how she had similar struggles after the birth of her second, Adira, last year -- and notes that pay equity and family leave in business are two causes she is focused on championing through her post-tennis work.
Family is important to Williams in many ways, she says. She also opens up on the special bond she shares with sister, Venus, joyfully calling them "codependent."
“Tennis is so lonely," Serena Williams says. "You’re on the road for 10 or 11 months out of the year. You really rely on having someone else out there. And Venus was there, and who else was going to relate to me? We were successful, and we were Black. We leaned on each other. We lived together. We lived together until a year before I had Olympia, so literally our whole lives.”
On her social media channels, Venus Williams gushed about her sister's honor, writing she was "so proud" when sharing Glamour's post to her Instagram.
But the chief takeaway from Williams' story is that even at 42, in the aftermath of one of the greatest careers in all of sports, she's still trying to evolve. She is continuing to develop a new line of beauty products, Wyn Beauty; is serving as a parent volunteer at Olympia's school; and is remodeling her entire house -- part of the reason why she hasn't picked up a tennis racquet in months, though she still loves playing.
“I really realized I always need a project,” she says.
