Since retiring from skilled tennis in 2022, Serena Williams has definitely had her palms full.

From beginning a make-up model to welcoming her second baby in 2023, the 23-time Grand Slam champion has stored herself busy with a number of new ventures. On Thursday, she introduced her newest – being the ambassador of an injectable weight-loss drug. 

Serena, 43, appeared on US breakfast programme The At the moment Present to share that she had misplaced 31lbs (simply over 14kg) utilizing a GLP-1 sort of remedy with the assistance of healthcare firm Ro. 

‘I assumed it was actually necessary simply to return out and say it,’ she instructed the hosts, including that she aimed to remove the stigma of some perceiving medicine to be a ‘lazy’ technique of weight reduction. 

Shortly after, a collaborative advert between the previous athlete and the medical model, which her husband Alexis Ohanian has invested in and serves on the board of, went dwell on their social media channels.

In it, Serena simulates injecting the drug into her abdomen, saying in a voiceover ‘after children, it’s the drugs my physique wanted,’ earlier than she smiles at a graph displaying her declining weight. 

As a lot as I do know that what different folks do with their our bodies is totally their alternative, I couldn’t assist however really feel a twinge of unhappiness upon seeing my perpetually favorite sportsperson changing into one other public determine advertising and marketing being smaller as being higher. 

Although I’m glad she’s feeling comfy in herself, Serena’s weight-loss influencer pivot is additional proof of how pervasive skinny supremacy is in at this time’s tradition – and the way even those that’ve had unimaginable success in, and due to their greater our bodies, aren’t immune from societal pressures..

Since her entry into the general public eye within the Nineties, the Compton-raised star has confronted ongoing media debate over her physique. 

For some commentators, her highly effective, muscular physique was one thing to criticise – in comparison with different ladies in tennis, Serena was greater and disrupted folks’s view of what a sportswoman ‘ought to’ seem like. 

All through the years, Serena has acknowledged her perceived uniqueness, even in comparison with her elder sister and fellow tennis star Venus. ‘After I was rising up, what was celebrated was totally different,’ she instructed British Vogue in 2020. 

‘Venus regarded extra like what is absolutely acceptable: she has extremely lengthy legs, she’s actually, actually skinny. I didn’t see folks on TV that regarded like me, who have been thick. There wasn’t optimistic physique picture. It was a distinct age.’

Whereas she could not have had position fashions with bigger our bodies whereas rising up, Serena ended up being this determine for numerous folks world wide. As a Black lady, she was particularly vital for me.

However as a lot as she’s been a logo of non-skinny excellence for many years, Serena is at first, a human. 

As GLP-1s have turn into extra widespread world wide, it appears as if messages of physique acceptance no matter dimension have gotten quieter, as folks use ‘weight reduction’ to be synonymous with normal well being.

Regardless of the recognition of the physique positivity motion within the late 2010s and early 2020s, society has by no means totally dispelled the idea of slimness being one thing to goal for. 

With numbers of plus-size runway fashions lowering, and previously huge content material creators and celebrities shrinking, is it any shock that somebody whose physique has been verbally dissected for many of her life determined to affix the pack?

Within the final yr, it’s felt more durable than ever to really feel assured in my physique with so many exterior forces telling me how significantly better off my life could be if I weighed rather less. 

The stress for somebody within the public eye have to be even higher – so I don’t choose Serena for doing what she felt was crucial to realize this weight.

I simply want there wasn’t this stress for anybody to be an ‘acceptable’ weight within the first place.

Weight-loss medicine are a difficult topic – they’re omnipresent not solely in celeb tradition, however in actual life. I do know folks whose lives have been modified for the higher through the use of related strategies, with decrease weight coming alongside elevated mobility and fewer stress on their joints. 

However with it being marketed so closely, it flattens very important physique variety conversations which have thrived within the final decade to skinny being the aim for everyone, even if you happen to’re completely wholesome already.