It’s no secret that Serena Williams is a phenomenon both on and off the court. The tennis G.O.A.T., fashion icon, entrepreneur and mom is incredibly special. Her powerful and inspiring energy were truly palpable while on the set of her SI Swimsuit photo shoot in 2017. Though that breathtaking feature with the franchise wasn’t her debut (the 23-time Grand Slam singles winner posed for Walter Iooss Jr. in Miami in both 2003 and 2004), she treated it with the excitement and freshness of a rookie, but the prowess and confidence of a pro.

Though the four-time Olympic gold medalist was used to being in front of a camera, striking a pose on the beaches of Turks and Caicos was a leap out of her comfort zone and a whole new ball game. In honor of the 43-year-old’s birthday today, we’re throwing it back to her gorgeous feature in Turks and Caicos.

“I want to come away with the fact that it’s O.K. to be comfortable in your body. I’ve never worn a thong before, and the second I stepped out there, I was comfortable. And what I would like for people to come away with is—first of all, I’m not a size 2—and it’s O.K. to look good, to feel good. And I’m strong—it’s O.K. to look strong and to be sexy and to be a woman and to be unbreakable and to be all those things,” she shared while on location. “Women need to be celebrated, and they need to embrace what you look like and not from the outside, but from the inside. So every time I step out there in that swimsuit, I’m really feeling myself from the inside. I’m feeling my inner beauty and it’s going, and it’s showing in my poses and in everything. So everything that I’m feeling is coming from the inside, and I think that confidence is something that I would love for everyone to have.”

Since evolving away from tennis in 2022, the mom of two, who shares her kids Olympia and Adira with husband Alexis Ohanian, is focused on building her brand. She’s the founder of Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests primarily in women of color-owned businesses. She also launched her makeup line, WYN Beauty, this year, and is a staple presence at events like the Met Gala and global fashion weeks.

Below are six stunning images from Williams’s 2017 SI Swimsuit feature with Emmanuelle Hauguel in Turks and Caicos.

This article was originally published on www.swimsuit.si.com as Birthday Girl Serena Williams Embraced Her Inner Beauty in Turks and Caicos.