Serena Williams, the Greatest of All Time, has been quite open and frank about her life as she grows as a mom. From the terrifying experiences during the birth of her daughter, Alexis Olympia, to coming back to the tennis world, through grappling with archaic laws that seeded her lower simply because she gave birth, to fighting her way through an amazing Wimbledon run, Serena has shown no thought of slowing down, even at the age of 36, where most athletes tend to at least mull over the idea.
Her interview with Time magazine is no less frank and no less powerful, as the tennis star talks more about her experiences with motherhood, her comeback and being “perfectly Serena.”
Here are some highlights from the interview.
On Her Performance at Wimbledon Even Amidst Postpartum Symptoms:
I dedicated that to all the moms out there who’ve been through a lot. Some days, I cry. I’m really sad. I’ve had meltdowns. It’s been a really tough 11 months. If I can do it, you guys can do it too.”
On balancing motherhood and work:
Sometimes she just wants Mommy, she doesn’t want anyone else. I still have to learn a balance of being there for her, and being there for me. I’m working on it. I never understood women before, when they put themselves in second or third place. And it’s so easy to do. It’s so easy to do.
On How Breastfeeding Made Her Feel
You have the power to sustain the life that God gave her. You have the power to make her happy, to calm her. At any other time in your life, you don’t have this magical superpower.
On Being Told by a Male Coach to Stop Breastfeeding for her Performance:
It’s absolutely hard to take from a guy. He’s not a woman, he doesn’t understand that connection, that the best time of the day for me was when I tried to feed her. I’ve spent my whole life making everyone happy, just servicing it seems like everyone. And this is something I wanted to do.
On Her Haters
I’m a black woman. Women in general are not treated the same as men who’ve had the same amount of success. And then, being a black woman, doing something historically that’s never been done, it’s easy to feel like, ‘We’ve always picked on people of this color. So I’m O.K. to continue to do it.’