Billie Jean King: ‘Sports Helps Women to Love and Trust Their Bodies’

“Billie Jean King’s been fighting for equality for over 70 years, and she’s not going to stop ever,” says Kory Marchisotto, the Chief Marketing Officer at Elf Beauty. “There’s a fire that you get when you’re with her. It’s like she’s passing a torch and saying, ‘Carry this fire with me.’ And it’s exceptional to be part of something like that.”

Discussing the brand’s partnership with Billie Jean King Enterprises, Kory says, “Billie talks a lot about allyship. She also talks about never stopping. You can’t ever be satisfied. Those two things are really important.

“When you think about the gap right now that we have in women in sports, for us, we always go where the community is… 84% of sports fans (of which 51% are men) say that they want to see more women in sports, and yet only 15% of broadcast goes to women in sports. And less than 10% of sponsorship deals and marketing dollars go to women in sports. That’s a huge gap, but we know the interest is there.”

For Billie’s part, she’s obsessed with the partnership. “They are hilarious, and they just get behind everything. I love them. They’re crazy. But I like that. I like their energy.”

Billie Jean King Enterprises and Elf Beauty clearly share values of empowering women, but this is something Billie feels on a deeply personal level, too. We discuss how body image can potentially deter women and girls from participating in sports.

“Actually,” Billie starts, “sports help girls to like and love their bodies, to trust their bodies. But we were always taught not to trust our bodies.” At this point, she clarifies this was the case when she was growing up and asks me if this is still true (“you have to tell me because I’m too old now”). I confirm that this is still very much the case.

“We know much more about men’s bodies in every way,” Billie continues. “But sports have proven—we’ve done all kinds of research now—that we learn to trust our bodies better than other women. We believe in our bodies. We believe in our connection to our mind, body, and soul. Because of sports, we are more resilient.”