Serena Williams Steps Into A New Self That Feels Untouchable

Serena Williams is entering a phase of profound personal discovery, turning inward after decades of global dominance, scrutiny, and relentless expectation.

In a rare, intimate conversation, she opens up about identity, evolution, motherhood, and the lifelong pressures she learned to survive.

Her words painted a portrait of a woman reclaiming herself with clarity, humor, and unapologetic honesty.

For the first time in her adult life, Serena Williams is navigating a world where the stakes are no longer measured in championship points or Grand Slam finals.

Instead, she's exploring what it means to be herself without the armor she once needed to compete.

Her growing presence in podcasting with her sister, Venus Williams, has become an unexpected gateway into a side of her personality the world has rarely witnessed. Through their "Stockton Street" podcast, she is letting the veil fall.

In an interview with PORTER, Serena, known globally for her fierce on-court presence, describes herself quite differently in private life.

"I am the most non-serious person I know," she laughs. "I'm the person that's always making the jokes. Dealing with the stuff that I've had to deal with, if I'm uncomfortable, I'll say something funny."

The shift into more open, unfiltered conversations is significant. For decades, Serena had to create emotional distance to survive the intensity of professional tennis.

She said, "In tennis, you can't really be yourself, which sounds weird, but you have to keep a veil up. You can't be too vulnerable."

Now, she is uncovering pieces of herself she had tucked away while competing at the highest level. And she's learning just as much about Venus in the process.

Their conversations have revealed things they never said aloud, including vulnerabilities they didn't know they shared during their years atop the sport.

One of the most powerful moments in the interview came when Serena reflected on the years of public commentary surrounding her physique. Her relationship with her body was shaped under extraordinary pressure, and her honesty is striking.

She said, "It was hard because when I was playing in the beginning – the first 15 years – my body was different. 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."

She acknowledged the emotional toll those comparisons took. "It does affect you mentally. Absolutely," she said. "You think you're large for your whole life and you look [back] and you're like, I was fit. Yeah, I had big muscles. I didn't look like these other girls, but not everyone looks the same."

Serena realized early what she had to do to preserve her mental strength. At just 17, fresh off her first US Open win, she made a life-changing decision.

She revealed, "I said I'm never going to read anything about me." Positive or negative, she refused to let outside voices shape how she saw herself.

She also reflected on being a Black woman in a sport that wasn't built with her in mind. The criticism wasn't just frequent, but often cruel.

However, even then, she hardened her boundaries. "You have something mean to say, get in line… I don't hear the noise. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. How am I going to sit here and change someone's thought? If [you] don't like me, you don't have to," she said.

Her resilience, sharpened over decades, still guides her today. "I'm not going to let anyone bring me down," she noted. "I put enough stress on myself. The last thing I'm going to allow is someone else to do that."

Serena Williams' post-tennis life centers around one priority: her daughters, Olympia and Adira. Motherhood has given her an entirely new rhythm, one she protects fiercely.

She admitted with a laugh that she barely left Olympia's side for years. She treasures the simple moments, like cooking dinner, being home for bedtime, and creating a life that feels rooted rather than rushed.

The tennis icon shared, "I want to be around my family. I'm cooking every night that I'm home. I'm home 29 nights a month."

Still, Serena isn't simply living a quieter life. She's building new empires. Through Serena Ventures, she is investing in founders who rarely get seen by the traditional venture capital system.

Her drive comes from curiosity and from shock at the inequity she discovered. She said, "I learned that less than 2% of all VC money went to women. That's just shocking. Trillions of dollars, right? And none of it is going to women. Insane."

For Serena, supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs isn't just business. It is personal.

She sees it as a responsibility tied directly to her platform and her experience. And yet, even the biggest deals and productions must fit around her home life; her children remain the calendar around which everything else must bend.

Serena Williams' love for fashion is well known, but she reveals that it blossomed because of her sister, Venus, who refused to let her fritter away downtime after high school.

That push led Serena to fashion school, where she rediscovered creativity and craft, and even today, she still sews her own garments.

Fashion, entrepreneurship, producing, and motherhood are not separate lives but interconnected layers of her new identity.

However, beneath the surface of all her projects, Serena is doing deeper internal work.

She speaks openly about her emotional goals for the coming year, and the statements are some of the most vulnerable of the entire interview.

"I want to leave behind anxiety, doubt, and second-guessing myself," she declared.

As Serena moves further from her competitive past and deeper into the complexities of family, business, creativity, and personal healing, she is clear about what she wants to bring with her and what she's leaving behind.

She is shifting away from doubt and stepping toward clarity.

Serena is shedding old expectations and embracing a life where she can be both mother and mogul, visionary and vulnerable. In that unraveling lies her greatest transformation yet.

She sums up her forward momentum with a philosophy she wants to live by, noting, "I want to bring in more clarity, confidence that I made the right decisions, and that you don't always have to live only for your children. I'm discovering me again."

Serena is changing, and this time, her evolution is entirely on her own terms.