Billie Jean King gets featured in Glamour magazine

Billie Jean King recently *sat down for an interview with Glamour*and opened up about her ongoing fight for equality in sports and beyond, and the importance of money.

During her interview with Glamour's Macaela Mackenzie and Mattie Kahn, King interrupted both of them to question them if they are getting paid fairly, did they negotiate and do they know what their male counterparts make?

King has impacted women's tennis immensely, and Naomi Osaka wouldn't be cashing in a $3 million dollar check that went to both the men’s and women’s US Open champions if King hadn't always questioned the status quo.

King was in the fifth grade when her friend Susan Williams asked if she wanted to join her on the court at a local California club. Williams is forever a blessing to King and she often thinks about what her life would look like if that question was never asked.

Thankfully it did, because King would climb up the rankings, capture 12 Grand Slams and start gaining attention, including the notice from the New York Times who published an article about King and her success in 1967. Instead of being content with her success, King questioned why the article was placed in the style and culture portions of the newspaper when she belonged alongside male athletes on the sports page.

Fifty years ago in 1970, women players were scrapping for crumbs while the men's tour was thriving and full of support. Women were being ignored so King and eight more women signed $1 contracts and started their own tour, called the Virginia Slims Circuit. A few years later, it would become the Women's Tennis Association (WTA).

The women were harshly criticized by the sports world at large, but the Original 9 were fearless and determined to fight for what was right, at any cost. Wednesday was the 50th anniversary of the contracts.

Just a couple years in, the WTA would host 23 tournaments with the total prize money of $100,000, the most money in the pot for any female athlete ever.

The Original 9 members would lay the foundation for women's tennis—fast-forward 50 years and nine of the 10 highest-paid female athletes in the world play tennis.

Although the progress has been monumental, King is not finished fighting for equality and there's still more work to be done. Right now, Serena Williams and Osaka are the only two women sitting inside the Forbes Top 50 list of the world's highest-paid athletes.

These kinds of stats keep the 76-year-old legend up at night and it fuels her to continue advocating for equality and not shying away from conversations about money.

“I think women need to talk about money a lot more and want to make a lot of money,” King told Glamour. “People have to invest in women. And I don’t mean just women investing in women; I mean everyone. If you help make it right for women, you’ll make the world a better place.”

King doesn't seem to acknowledge how far she's come and the work she's done, the sports icon is only focused on the future and making life for everyone on this planet more equal.

"I’ll tell her to turn the light off," King's parter Ilana Kloss told Glamour. "She’s falling asleep. She does not want the day to end, because it’s one less day that she’s going to be on earth to accomplish something, and to take all the stuff in."

No one plays the game like King and she's not done serving aces in the game of life.