Tennis phenom Serena Williams penned this essay about girl power, and we are so inspired

As women, we don’t strive to be the best “for a girl.” We strive to be the best. Period. That’s why it’s so frustrating that we are often judged differently. Tennis star Serena Williams penned a powerful open letter about women and the necessity to dream big. The letter will be published in Porter magazine’s “Incredible Women of 2016” Issue.
Serena has risen to the top of the tennis world, and she is undeniably one of the best tennis players ever. And she’ll be the first to correct you if you simply call her the best “female” tennis player. Because she knows that’s selling herself short.
Serena Williams wrote an essay encouraging women to dream big.
Serena says, "My dream wasn’t like that of an average kid, my dream was to be the best tennis player in the world. Not the best 'female' tennis player in the world."
She has achieved that for sure! Serena holds the record for the most Grand Slam singles titles for any tennis player, male or female.
And Serena wants to make sure that we as women are defined as people, and not just as females.
"As we know, women have to break down many barriers on the road to success. One of those barriers is the way we are constantly reminded we are not men, as if it is a flaw. People call me one of the “world’s greatest female athletes. Do they say LeBron is one of the world’s best male athletes? Is Tiger? Federer? Why not? They are certainly not female. We should never let this go unchallenged. We should always be judged by our achievements, not by our gender."
Serena’s words are so true. How many times do we add the word “female” or “woman” to a profession or an accomplishment? Pretty much all the time. While we do want to celebrate women’s achievements, we don’t want get to a place where we don’t feel that we have to mention that they’re a woman. We would love to live in a world where everyone referred to the awesome Serena as one of the world’s greatest athletes. No “female” modifier needed.
Serena also turns her words into thoughts about equal pay.
She says, "I know firsthand that I, like you, have done the same work and made the same sacrifices as our male counterparts."
Men in professional tennis still receive more prize money than women. Even though Serena herself is a huge draw to the sport. As with so many other careers, we’d love to see the pay gap disappear. And the first step is to keep this, and other topics of gender bias, in the conversation.
For Serena, the most important takeaway is to never stop fighting. To never give in.
"We must continue to dream big, and in doing so, we empower the next generation of women to be just as bold in their pursuits."
Talk about a woman who practices what she preaches. Serena constantly keeps fighting to achieve her goals, both on and off the court. And that’s one of the many qualities that makes her so awesome.