Venus Williams on Leveling Up the Beauty Space and the $15 Serum She Can't Quit

There aren't many idols from my childhood who I've consistently been able to look up to from the early '90s to today. (In fact, in most cases, it's been the complete

opposite.) Even though I was one year old when Venus Williams went pro at the age of 14—um, casual—in 1994, I grew up watching her, cheering her on, and wishing my terrible tennis game could become even remotely close to the moves and swerves I saw her skillfully making on the court. (Spoiler: there are some people who should never own, let alone hold, a tennis racket, and I am one of those people!)

Williams might be one of the most talented and celebrated tennis players of all time—she currently holds 75 championship tennis titles and has had one of the longest careers in tennis history—but she's managed to transcend her athletic legacy by punctuating her influence with entrepreneurial endeavors that are smart, empowering, and intentional. In other words, she's not simply sticking her name onto something just because she can. 

While Williams has founded multiple cool brands like Happy Viking—a plant-based protein line and V Starr—a South Florida-based interior design firm, it's her activewear label EleVen by Venus Williams, and more specifically, the SPF beauty collection within said label, that gets me super, super jazzed. (I am a beauty editor after all!) With three all-star formulas under her belt—a sunscreen cream, a sunscreen serum, and a sunscreen lip balm—we chatted up the athlete and founder to find out what it's been like to enter the beauty space, what gets her excited about product development and indulging in a beauty routine, and so much more. Keep scrolling to get to know Venus Williams and to become intimately acquainted with her go-to product lineup.