Serena Williams Says She ‘Didn’t Look Like’ Other Athletes As a Teen

Serena Williams is opening up about how she struggled with her body image when she was young. In an interview with Net-a-Porter’s magazine, Porter, Williams talked about looking different from other athletes growing up.

“It was hard because when I was playing in the beginning — the first 15 years — my body was different,” she said. “I had big boobs; I had a big butt. Every athlete was like super flat, super thin and beautiful, but in a different way. And I didn’t understand as an athlete how to deal with that.”

Williams said public scrutiny about her body “absolutely” affected her mentally. “You think you’re large for your whole life and you look [back] and you’re like, ‘I was fit’,” she said. “Yeah, I had big muscles. I didn’t look like these other girls but not everyone looks the same.”

To cope, she explained, she decided not to read news coverage about herself after winning the U.S. Open for the first time at 17. “I was so young, but I said I’m never going to read anything about me,” she said. “At the Open, there was so much positivity, and I thought, I don’t want my head to get too big. I wanted to stay humble. I also thought if it’s negative, I don’t want to read it. I never really read an article after that.”

Williams’s body has been subjected to widespread scrutiny throughout her career — in 2018, she recalled being body-shamed for having biceps and looking strong. In August, when Williams revealed she’d started the GLP-1 medication Zepbound after giving birth to her daughter in 2023, she told Vogue she wants to be open about her body “because there’s no shame in this.” She added, “I don’t really care what people are saying about my body anymore. But what is important to me is transparency.”