Billie Jean King's Story Read by Jessica Valenti

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls

Rebel Girls

Kids & Family, Stories For Kids, Education For Kids

4.5 • 7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2024

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Once upon a time, there was a bespectacled girl who loved tennis. She was resourceful and figured out a way to get tennis lessons for free since her family didn't have a lot of money. When she became a national champion, she began to fight for equal rights within the tennis circuit: equal pay for men AND women. This led to a revolution in the sport, paving the way for future female superstars like Venus and Serena Williams. [This episode originally aired in April 2018.] About the Narrator Jessica Valenti is a columnist for the Guardian US and the author of multiple books on feminism, politics, and culture. Her most recent book, Sex Object: A Memoir, was a New York Times bestseller. Her award-winning blog, Feministing.com, has been praised by Columbia Journalism Review as “head and shoulders above almost any writing on women’s issues in mainstream media.” Credits This episode of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls is produced by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo, with writing and operation support by Darby Maloney and Elyssa Dudley. Sound Design and Original Theme Music by Elettra Bargiacchi.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Once upon a time there was a girl who needed $8. Her name was Billy Jean.
0:12.0	She was 10 years old when one of her friends told her about a fantastic sport called tennis.
0:18.0	You get to run, jump, and hit a ball, her friend had said.
0:22.0	Billy Jean's bright blue eyes lit up.
0:25.0	Those were her three favorite things.
0:27.0	From then on, she wanted to spend all her time on the tennis court.
0:31.0	There were only two problems.
0:34.0	One, her parents couldn't afford to join a country club,
0:38.0	which is where most people played tennis those days.
0:40.0	And two, she needed money to buy a racket.
0:46.0	Billy Jean found out that a local tennis coach gave free lessons in public parks around the city,
0:51.0	and she figured, if I follow him to all five parks I could get five
0:55.1	free tennis lessons a week.
0:57.8	As for the racket, Billy Jean went door-to-door offering to do odd jobs for her neighbors so she could earn the money to buy one.
1:04.9	They were so taken with her perky determination that they came up with all sorts of chores
1:09.4	for her to do.
1:11.6	She pulled weeds and gardens, wre rigged leaves, took out endless bags of trash.
1:17.0	And little by little, Billy Jean began to fill a glass jar with coins.
1:22.0	Once she had eight whole dollars she bought herself a tennis
1:26.3	racket. It was made of wood and had purple strings, her favorite color. She walked on to the tennis court for her first tennis lesson,
1:37.0	holding the racket bought with the money that she had earned.
1:42.0	And Billy Jean felt like she could do anything.
	...

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