CNN interviewed Serena Williams when she was 9. Here’s what she said:
“I felt like that I was in some strange place where I was a princess and they took me to be a slave.”
“They told me my parents were rich. They had this mansion, with a pool and a Jacuzzi.”
“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I have nobody, except for these people. And it’s just me and my parents. But I don’t know them.'”
“I think I was always shy. I was really shy. I always felt like the odd one. I was always like the odd one.”
“I didn’t know I was good-looking until I got to high school and I started playing tennis competitively. Then I realized, ‘Oh my god, this is something good for me. I wasn’t born beautiful, but I can be beautiful in this world and I can change the world.'”
“I felt like I was something to be bought and sold. I was always very aware of things with my body.”
“I always felt that, ‘Well, I’m just going to get this, this, and that, and go out and use it on someone else.’ I don’t know what I was going to do with it.”
“I was always embarrassed at first. But when you’re like, nine years old and you’ve had bad experiences and you’re used to having a certain amount of money, then it’s not going to faze you. I never thought I was good-looking until tennis came into my life.”
“I just wanted to be loved.”
“I liked the idea of not being perfect.”
“I wasn’t a fighter.”
“I wanted others to be as proud of me as I was of myself.”
“I didn’t know how I would be accepted by the public. I didn’t know that I wouldn’t be