American teenage tennis sensation Coco Gauff said that youngsters of her generation are now emboldened to speak up and not kowtow to their elders.
Gauff, aged just 15, has taken the women’s tennis circuit by storm this year, with eye-catching performances at Wimbledon and the US Open and winning her first professional title in Linz, Austria, last weekend.
She told The Guardian she is using her fame to promote causes she believes in through her following in social media especially Instagram.
“Lately, younger people are leading movements and I guess the world has to get used to it because we’re used to older people telling us what to do,” Gauff said speaking in Luxembourg where she played this week but lost in the first round.
“My generation has just decided it was time to speak up on our own about things. I do follow the (climate) movement a lot and I’m learning about ways we can better change, at least my lifestyle and the way my family live.
“It’s great when they say I’m young and I’m doing great things.
“It will get frustrating when they say: ‘You’re young, you don’t know any better.” I think it’s a good thing to point out that to a younger person but I think we shouldn’t put someone’s intelligence down no matter what.”
The teenager said that her father instilled belief in her to achieve anything she wanted.
“He always tells me: ‘Just don’t limit yourself and set your goals as high as possible.’ I think that’s the reason why I believe in myself so much and everything I’ve done, I guess, for 15 has been great,” she said.
“People always talk about my age. For other people it seems to be a big deal but for me it’s just my reality. Ever since I was young my parents have always told me I could do it. So, a lot of the things that happened, yes, it’s surprising but it’s not as big a surprise as it appears to everyone else,” she added.
Gauff, who during Black History Month this year posted facts about Juneteenth -– the American commemoration of the abolition of slavery -– and things she did not learn at school, says fame is helping her to get her own messages across about issues she is interested in.
“Wimbledon (she reached the fourth round losing to eventual champion Simona Halep) has given me an opportunity to raise money and raise awareness for other things and I’m glad that I was able to,” she said.
“With every match I win I seem to get more and more people following me, so that’s good.
“And that means more and more awareness for subjects I care about. I always wanted to not just be a tennis player.”
Her win in Linz last weekend aged 15 years and seven months made her the youngest player to win a WTA event since Czech Nicole Vaidisova, who triumphed in Vancouver and Tashkent two months apart in 2004 as a 15-year-old.