Serena Williams on Her New Jewelry Collection, Giving Back and Self-Care

Credit : serenawilliamsjewelry / Instagram

Just like her latest and aptly named jewelry collection, Serena Williams is unstoppable. The elite tennis player has 23 Grand Slam titles under her belt, as well as four Olympic gold medals. She also has a career in fashion design. In an interview with Essence, Williams reveled that she studied fashion design in the early 2000s and finally launched her eponymous fashion line in 2018. William is also the face of footwear brand Stuart Weitzman and starred in a stunning campaign in May. On top of all that, she's a mother to three-year-old Olivia. Last year, she has added jewelry designer to her impressive list of achievements.

Unstoppable With All Your Heart

Williams launched her Unstoppable jewelry collection earlier this year with 100 percent of the net profits going to the Opportunity Fund, an organization that provides loans to women, Black-owned small businesses, immigrants with low to moderated incomes and other small business owners who are underserved. Her latest line of jewelry, called Unstoppable With All Your Heart, boasts three new designs — a bangle, a chain bracelet, and a necklace. Each design is made with sterling silver and features a pavé diamond-accented heart.

Heart to Heart

A conversation with Bustle reveals William's desire to give back to the Black community in this time of crisis. As Elle reported, Luz Urrutia, CEO of the Opportunity Fund, said that 10 percent (that's 3.3 million) of America's small businesses shut down permanently between February and April of this year due the Covid-19 pandemic. Opportunity Fund's Small Business Relief Fund raises money to support these businesses and Williams has found this avenue as a progressive way to give back. She shares that she wanted consumers to know that when they buy something from her Unstoppable jewelry line, they also support women of color who have felt and still feel oppressed and rejected.

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Williams came up with the name "Unstoppable" for her limited-edition collection as a nod to her Grand Slam wins in 2015. That year, she won all four Slams in a row and she was wearing one necklace with a circular design in all four competitions. That design became her inspiration for the Unstoppable collection as says she felt truly unstoppable during that time.

Bustle also asked Williams if there are any Black-owned businesses that she would like to shine a spotlight on and she answers that she supports Mahmee, a group founded by Melissa Hanna. Mahmee combines the expertise of health care industry workers and technologists to work on the gaps in maternal and infant health care. Williams reveals that her own difficult experience in childbirth and the lack of proper attention and aftercare that women of color universally experience made Mahmee's cause very dear to her.

As for her self-care routine amidst this worldwide-pandemic, Williams says she values comfort over everything. While she loves fashion, she says that she needs mommy-proof gear to chase her daughter around. Her go-to loungewear, as expected, is from Nike. When she does have meetings over Zoom, she keeps her own S by Serena plaid belted overcoat nearby for easy access and throws it own whenever she needs to look more professional. She adds that her self-care routine is ever-changing, but she does try to carve out moments for me-time to nurture herself.