Serena Williams has shared an emotional open letter to her mother Oracene Price on Reddit, thanking her for encouraging the tennis star to be proud of her muscular frame amid public scrutiny and body shaming.
"I was looking at my daughter (OMG, yes, I have a daughter) and she has my arms and legs! My exact same strong, muscular, powerful, sensational arms and body," Williams writes.
"I don't know how I would react if she has to go through what I've gone through since I was a 15 year old and even to this day."
She continues, "I'm not sure how you did not go off on every single reporter, person, announcer and quite frankly, hater, who was too ignorant to understand the power of a black woman. Thank you for being the role model I needed to endure all the hardships that I now regard as challenges--ones that I enjoy. I hope to teach my baby Alexis Olympia the same, and have the same fortitude you have had."