GLP-1 and its body image message to reduce Serena Williams’ weight

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Serena Williams reveals her experience with GLP-1 drugs. The 43-year-old tennis star lost 31 pounds in the drug Zepbound, which is normally prescribed for diabetes. It is currently used for weight management.

Williams’ struggle with body image began with postpartum changes after giving birth to her first daughter, Alexis Olympia, in 2017, and continued after her second son, Adira River, was born in August 2023.

Tennis stars’ candidacy may help dispel the troublesome health inaccuracy that weight loss is a simple exercise problem. While active living and healthy eating can help with the process, new research suggests that external factors like genetics may play a greater role than previously thought. As arguably one of the world’s biggest athletes, Williams’ decision to share her journey with GLP-1 may help reconstruct the image of the medicine.

“The misunderstanding is that it’s a shortcut,” she said in an interview. “As an athlete and as someone who did it all, I couldn’t gain weight where I needed to be in a healthy place – and trust me, I don’t take a shortcut.”

Female star struggling under the spotlight

In an interview with Teen Vogue in 2018, Williams shared details of the physical shame she experienced throughout her career. “People will say I was born.

In March 2025, Meghan’s trainer also opened up about her struggle with postpartum body image. The 31-year-old Grammy Award winner has been looking forward to breast augmentation surgery since she was a teenager, but told USA Today that pregnancy and two c-sections strengthened her desires.

“It was hard to see my body,” she said at the time. “I’ve always sang about loving myself. I gotten more and more intense with all the wounds and stretch marks. And after losing weight, these boobs felt purely empty, flat, and like the skin of my body.”

Similarly, rugby champion Irona Maher used her platform to become an innovative body positivity activist and inspire younger women and athletes.

Williams says it’s important to teach people to be confident in all sizes, as she’s trying to do.

“It was the size I used to be, it had no issues with it. It’s not what I wanted,” she revealed. “I knew I personally wanted to feel comfortable.”

“Weight loss should never change your self-image,” she said. “Women often experience judgments about their bodies at any size, but I’m not familiar with them, so I feel like I should love myself with any size of them.”

The rise of GLP-1 brings countless effective concerns, including contributions to disrupted feeding as an ideal body type and promotion of thinness, but Williams’ candidness is an important and balanced example of healthy, clear GLP-1 use.

Celebrities must be transparent about their weight loss

We entered not only the rapid weight loss period that induces GLP-1, but also the “undetectable era” of plastic surgery. Cosmetic procedures and fillers are no longer obvious on the face of celebrities.

Mental health experts agree that celebrities who share what they have done or how they have gone on a transformative weight loss journey will help their fans maintain healthy and realistic beauty standards. Undetectable times can lead to less transparency – making it more important than ever for people to stop comparing their looks to celebrities.

“It may establish an unattainable ideal, and I think the more we get used to who we are, the less it becomes an issue,” psychotherapist Stephanie Salkis previously told USA Today. “When we feel okay about ourselves, we tend not to compare ourselves to others.”

Williams wants to have an “honest conversation” about GLP-1

The popularity skyrocketed, and the drug that tore Hollywood gave Williams the extra boost she needed, but she told Vogue she knew how much stigma remains.

“I’m not making this light, so it’s very important to have an honest conversation about this topic,” she said. “I’m a mom of two girls. I wanted to be very honest about what I’m doing, so they can always do the same as me and we can have an open relationship.”

The drugs that work by targeting specific hormones and suppressing appetite made Williams feel “sexy” and “more confident.” And if you’re working hard in the gym, they say they’re being given misinformed about people who say you don’t need drugs.

“Sometimes you need help. Your story is your story and you can choose to do it if you want,” she told Vogue. “I did it, and I’m really happy with it.”

Contributor: Anna Kaufman

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