"I needed to take care of my 'whole self.'"
 | By Susannah Meadows Staff Editor, Opinion |
I met Venus Williams in 2003 at her home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. I was writing a story about her sister, Serena, for Newsweek Magazine. The two lived together at the time, and they were kind enough to let me spend the day there. |
What struck me about them was how normal they seemed for the superstars that they were. That day, I saw the two sisters giggle together about a crush Serena had, and heard them consulting on the outfits they were going to wear that night. Venus was excited about the razors she'd seen at the drugstore earlier that day. She couldn't believe it, but there was a brand called "Venus." She got such a kick out of seeing her name on the razors, she bought a whole bag of them. |
Their house was modest, certainly by celebrity standards. While there were some Wimbledon trophies in the dining room, there were also fabric samples leaning against the wall, evidence of Venus' interior design business. |
I have met and interviewed other famous people, but the Williams sisters stand out to me as the most down-to-earth and well adjusted of any of them. |
Eighteen years later, in an essay for The Times, Venus offers an explanation. She describes advice her mother gave her early on, when she was 14, playing at her first professional tournament. "If I wanted to thrive in this sport — and in life — I needed to take care of my 'whole self,'" Venus writes. "I needed to have a balanced life and not identify myself solely as a tennis player." |
This is what I witnessed at her home all those years ago. |
"Paying attention to my psychological well-being has allowed me to love the game of tennis for this long," she writes. "I guess you could say it's the thing that has really made me tough." |
In the essay, Venus adds her voice to the chorus of people working to destigmatize mental illness. She calls for better access to mental health services for those who need help. |
"You can't divorce mental health from anything you do," she writes. "It impacts your physical well-being, your decision-making, your ability to cope with difficult moments." |
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