Serena Williams has been a big supporter of working mothers ever since she gave birth to her daughter last year.
And she wanted to remind these mothers that perfection should never be the end goal when it comes to balancing work and family, the tennis legend wrote in a letter on International Women’s Day.
“I want to make it clear that perfection is an impossible goal and should never be a true pursuit in life,” she wrote in a
Fortune essay published on Friday.
Balance is something Williams has admitted to struggling with since her daughter Olympia was born in 2017. Since returning to the tennis circuit last year, Williams writes that she has struggled to juggle her work pursuits and motherhood.
“She is my absolute priority ― spending as much time as possible with her every day is so important to me,” Williams wrote of Olympia. “But I’m still training to win Grand Slams and sometimes I have to make hard choices about how I spend my time.”
She added: “I’ve cried over Olympia so many times that I’ve lost count. I cried when I stopped breastfeeding. I sat with Olympia in my arms, I talked to her, we prayed about it, and I told her, ‘Mommy has to do this.’ I cried when I missed Olympia’s first steps because I was in training.”
In the letter, Williams added that she wanted women the world over to keep supporting each other through life.
“While I think all women are superheroes, we are not superhuman and we need each other’s support,” Williams wrote. “We need to give each other grace when we fall short ― and when society sets unrealistic expectations or our workplaces have antiquated rules. We must band together and fight for what’s fair.”
