Venus Williams was born on June 17th, 1980 in Lynwood, California.
Like Venus Williams younger sister Serena Williams was thought to play tennis by her parents Richard Williams and Oracene Price at young age.
as a kid Venus Williams played in the children's tennis circuits and turned pro at the young age of 14 on Oct 31st when she played in the bank of the west classic against Arantxa Sánchez Vicario. The young Venus Williams lost her first match, but she would soon show that she could play with the best of them when a year later she defeated Amy Frazier who at the time was one of the top 20 women tennis players.
in 97 Venus Williams played in her first US Open and when she started to become a bit of a household name.
Venus Williams has a magnificent career in tennis. with over 41 career titles in singles and over 13 titles for doubles and 3 Olympic gold medals.
With Venus Williams successful career and other women tennis players like her sister (Serena Williams) being such big name draws to the sport of tennis, Venus joined the protest lead by Billie Jean King, spoke up about the unfair practice of events such as the French Open and Wimbledon paying women players less then men in 2005.
that protest didn't work, but a year later Venus Williams wrote an article in the Times taking Wimbledon's policy of unequal pay to task and that seemed to have been the push need to get change past because (at the time British Prime Minister) Tony Blair supported Venus Williams' effort. Later in 2006 the Women's Tennis Association and UNESCO ask Venus Williams to lead the campaign for equal pay in the tennis world. The following year they got what they wanted when Wimbledon and French Open changed their policy and started to pay people equally regardless of gender.
in 2007 Venus Williams also graduated Cum Laude form the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale with a degree in Fashion Design.
That year Venus Williams started her own clothing line EleVen which is sold at Steve and Barry's.
Venus Williams also the CEO of her own interior design firm called V Starr Interiors which has designed the set for the pbs show the Tavis Smiley show and in American bid for the 2012 games Venus' V Starr Interiors did the designs for the living space for the athletes.
currently Venus Williams is dating pro golfer Hank Kuehne.
