Since retiring from tennis two years ago, Williams has made entrepreneurship her focus, both her own and others. She discusses the expansion of her beauty line, Wyn Beauty, in the interview, and that her venture capital firm, Serena Ventures, has invested in more than 85 companies. Fourteen of them are currently valued at $1 billion or more.
Releasing herself from the perfectionism that made her one of the world’s greatest athletes, in any sport, has also been crucial to Williams’ post-retirement life, particularly as a mother. She shares a candid anecdote that she experienced postpartum depression after the birth of her first daughter, Olympia, now 7, and that similar hormonal experiences ravaged her after her second daughter Adira was born last year.
“You never know when it can happen,” she says. “It could be a month; it could be a week. It could take a year for things to settle down a lot. We are the vessels of increasing the population, literally. It’s really just keeping a positive environment and giving yourself grace and understanding.”
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