Worldwide tennis phenomenon Serena Williams took social media by storm earlier today when she posted her cover for the upcoming August issue of Vanity Fair.
The initial pregnancy announcement
In April of this year, Serena Williams surprised her fans when she took to Snapchat to reveal that she was 20 weeks pregnant with her fiancé and Reddit co-founder, Alexis Ohanian. She deleted the photo shortly after posting it and left her fans waiting for hours before she publicly commented on the matter and confirmed the news to the media.
It was clear that she wasn't going to be able to return to the court this year, but the announcement sparked a bevy of speculation regarding whether or not she'd ever return to the sport after she has the child.
However, a source close to Williams confirmed that she was planning on returning to tournaments in 2018.
Unfortunately, all news surrounding the announcement wasn't positive, as Romanian tennis player Ilie Nastase made a racist remark about Williams' unborn child. The comment, which compared the child to chocolate with milk, was in reference to the child's biracial heritage.
According to Think Progress, some of his other offenses include sexual harassment towards female coaches and reporters, as well as verbal attacks made against players on opposing teams.
Serena Williams took to Instagram in order to comment on and voice her disapproval of Nastase's actions.
The viral Vanity Fair cover
Much to the annoyance and/or delight of pop culture connoisseurs, Serena Williams is not the first pregnant celebrity to pose either semi or fully naked the cover of a magazine or social media.
The cover features the well-known tennis champion, topless and very pregnant. The reveal was mostly met with praise from fans and other celebrities.
She posted the picture on Twitter to a variety of excited and encouraging responses:
Check out my Vanity Fair Cover. Question- what do u guys think boy or girl? I'm waiting to find out but would love to hear your thoughts. pic.twitter.com/Nnq4VKCu8N
— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) June 27, 2017
Williams' many accomplishments
Outside of breaking the internet with cryptic social media posts or appearing in music videos alongside Beyoncé, Serene Williams has accomplished an impressive list of things during her tennis career.
She won Wimbledon and the Australian Open — two high-profile tennis tournaments — a total of seven times, and, at the time of her announcement, had been ranked No. 1 for 316 weeks.
On top of that, some fans also pointed out that Williams was also a couple of weeks pregnant in January during her 23rd grand-slam win on the women's pro-tennis tour in Melbourne.
