Serena Williams appears on the latest cover of FADER, and the cover story features the G.O.A.T. talking about everything from the intense workouts that she still does to her appearance in Beyoncé’s LEMONADE video. But it doesn’t sound like Serena is going to get around to actually reading the excellent story.
At one point during her Q&A with FADER, Serena was asked how she deals with all of the people out there who write articles about her body. She has gone on the record on numerous occasions in the past and talked about how much she loves her body, but it hasn’t stopped people from writing about it. So she has a really simple solution for dealing with those people: She’s stopped reading articles about herself. Like, all articles, whether they have to do with her body or not.
"I’ve purposely tuned people out since I was 17," she said. "At the time, it was basically newspapers and maybe a website article. Maybe if the web was up back then. Since the day I won the U.S. Open, my very first Grand Slam, I never read articles about myself. If I saw myself mentioned, I’d look away. I looked at the pictures, but that’s pretty much it. I didn’t want to get too cocky, and at the same time, I didn’t want to have that negative energy. I don’t know why I did it, but I did it. Ever since then, I’ve been really low-key."
She then went on to explain how she handles hearing both good and bad things about her body on the rare occasion that she hears commentary about it.
"People have been talking about my body for a really long time," she said. "Good things, great things, negative things. People are entitled to have their opinions, but what matters most is how I feel about me, because that’s what’s going to permeate the room I’m sitting in. It’s going to make you feel that I have confidence in myself whether you like me or not, or you like the way I look or not, if I do. That’s the message I try to tell other women and in particular young girls. You have to love you, and if you don’t love you, no one else will. And if you do love you, people will see that and they’ll love you, too."
Serena also touched on several other topics throughout the interview. Here are just a few of her more notable quotes:
On what sets her apart from other pro athletes:
On being comfortable with her sexuality:
On the temper tantrums she occasionally throws on the court:
You can check out Serena’s entire FADER story here.