“How do you make yourself more comfortable when you’re feeling out of place?” a preteen audience member named Sudi asked, gazing adoringly at one of her tennis role models who was sitting a mere 20 feet away.
“I’ve been in places where I knew I wasn’t wanted. And I was able to do it with a smile because I was prepared,” replied Venus Williams, tennis champion and author of upcoming wellness-focused book “Strive: 8 Steps To Find Your Awesome,” that’s set to drop on Sept. 10. “So if you feel like you’re in a place where there’s no one that looks like you, just prepare yourself. When I came to the court, I knew I could swing that racket — and that no one could do it better. So I didn’t have to say anything because my racket did all of the talking.”
Ilya S. Savenok via Getty Images for Dove
Sudi and her peers, New York City middle school girls for whom tennis is life, were invited to the event hosted by Dove, who partnered with Black Girls Tennis Club for an in-person tennis experience with Williams. During the first hour, the girls were on the edge of their seats, gleaning advice and encouraging words from an icon they’d only seen slay on-screen. Alongside Williams on the panel moderated by speaker and makeup artist Dre Brown was Virginia Thornton, co-founder of Black Girls Tennis Club, a quickly expanding nonprofit that aims to provide Black girls with tennis instruction and support.
The conversations throughout the event zoomed in on confidence and community — and how the latter could help boost the former for female athletes of all ages. The vibes immaculately matched Dove’s overall mission of ageless body positivity.
The impetus for the partnership was new evidence that 45% of girls globally drop out of sports by age 14 — twice the rate of boys — with body confidence being the primary reason, according to research privately conducted by the…
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