Naomi Osaka Slammed For 'Age Shaming' Serena Williams With 'Mom' Post
By Whitney Vasquez on January 15, 2020 at 6:20 AM EST
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Tennis star Naomi Osaka is getting ripped to shreds by fans for using the word "mom" to describe her relationship with superstar Serena Williams. The 22-year-old attempted to be sweet when she captioned an adorable snap of her with Williams, who is 38, but it terribly backfired when haters took offense over the term despite their nearly 20 year age gap. After many insinuated that Naomi Osaka was "age shaming" the mom of one, the young tennis star came out swinging with an epic response.
Posting a photo of the tennis duo sitting on a bench with microphones and their tennis gear on, Naomi Osaka captioned the picture, "me and my mom lol." While it seems innocent enough, her followers were not happy with Naomi Osaka's comparison and immediately began slamming her in the comment section of her post. "More like big sister," responded one not so happy fan. "Agree," commented another, "it was a bit improper to call her mom." Someone else insinuated Naomi Osaka was "age shaming" Serena Williams.
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"This seems a little bit like age shaming," the person wrote. "Not a fan." Naomi Osaka wasted no time responding to haters and posted her epic reasoning for using the term "mom" when describing Serena Williams. "I literally would not be here without her," she told her followers. "If that's not some definition of a mom idk what is." Naomi Osaka continued by giving the haters a little dig right back and stated, "But sure, get offended by internet slang I guess."
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Naomi Osaka's controversy comes just one day after it was announced the young tennis star was nominated for Laureus' Sportswoman of the Year. She's one of the six females nominated for the prestigious award. Her competition includes soccer star Megan Rapinoe, gymnast Simone Biles, sprinters Allyson Felix and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, as well as US skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin. Naomi Osaka is the first Asian tennis player to be ranked number one in singles and has more important things to focus her time on than haters.
