Nationwide — Tennis celebrity Venus Williams is being honored with a Barbie Inspiring Girls doll that celebrates all of her Grand Slam victories and her struggle for gender equality in sports activities. The collectible displays her 2007 Wimbledon triumph, the place she made historical past on and off the courtroom.
In response to ABC Information, the doll options Williams in her all-white Wimbledon outfit, paired with a inexperienced gem necklace, wristband, racket, and tennis ball. The look is a direct nod to the second she received the event as the primary lady to obtain equal prize cash.
Williams’s journey towards that milestone started years earlier. In 2005, she met with French Open and Wimbledon officers to demand equal pay for feminine gamers. She later wrote in The Instances that the tournaments had been on the “unsuitable aspect of historical past,” urging them to make change.
Her advocacy led to a breakthrough in 2007, when each tournaments awarded equal prize cash to women and men. Williams’s Wimbledon victory that 12 months turned symbolic of progress, marking her as a champion far past tennis.
Barbie stated in a press release that Williams’s braveness and persistence proceed to encourage folks worldwide, aligning with the model’s mission of empowering future generations. “Simply as Barbie stays devoted to inspiring limitless potentialities, Venus’s bravery and dedication to gender equality continues to encourage folks all over the world – each in sports activities and past,” the assertion learn.
The Venus Williams Barbie is offered for buy on Amazon
This isn’t Williams’s first collaboration with Barbie. In Might, she was amongst 9 feminine athletes honored with dolls to have fun the model’s sixty fifth anniversary. Reflecting on the popularity, Williams stated she has at all times been pushed to “shatter glass ceilings” and was proud to encourage younger women to maintain believing of their goals.