Coco Gauff dishes on 'embracing adulthood' in TIME magazine's May cover story

First Vogue, now TIME: Coco Gauff's media empire continues to expand. The 20-year-old American is the cover star for the May issue of TIME, following her selection as one of 2024's "Women of the Year" in February.

Profiled at length by TIME writer Sean Gregory, Gauff discusses the recent end of her teenage years (her birthday was last month), and how she's evolved from chiefly focusing on the expectations of others to those of herself.

“At first I was scared to grow up,” Gauff tells Gregory. “But now I’m embracing adulthood and womanhood.”

In the piece, Gauff also brings to light a pair of off-court stories that might be new to fans who've followed her career since its earliest days: First, at age 12, she experienced a racist incident at a junior tournament in France. While she cried after it happened, she said, "then I just kind of got over it the next day."

“I just felt like that’s just something that people experience, which is not a great thing," she continued. "They just probably didn’t grow up around other people that looked different. I don’t have any anger towards it. It was not an experience that defined me.”

Then, at 15, a few months after her international breakthrough at Wimbledon, she returned home to attend a homecoming dance in Boca Raton, Fla. But by then, Gauff said, she already knew her life was going to be different than that of her peers.

“I just think I was at a maturity level different from the kids around me,” Gauff said. “No one has their life figured out at 15. But I, for the most part, did.”

Since those early days, Gauff has shown a willingness to voice her opinions and use her platform to speak up and out about things she feels strongly about. That continues to be at the forefront of her being even as she transitions into the next phase of her life.

“I am not one to shy away from something that I feel informed about,” she said.

Also covered in the story are how Gauff has evolved into a sporting and cultural icon; and her on-court goals for 2024, chief of which is challenging for a medal at the Paris Olympics. She wants to win gold "so bad," and representing the U.S. gives her "goosebumps," she said. Shortly after the Games, her US Open title defense will be the next hurdle—one she says she's ready to face.

“Sometimes people get unmotivated after winning one. That hasn’t been a personal challenge for me," she said.

“My goal is to be relaxed and have fun and play with less pressure,” she later added. “I know people are going to start talking about defending the US Open title later on in the year. I’m not worried about that.”