Tennis golden girl gives back
Goes off court and online with a new website for young Kiwi women.
Aformer professional tennis player and fourtime winner of the New Zealand Tennis Championships, Sacha Jones picked up her first racket aged 3, and at 15 began competing globally on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tour.
She reached a ranking of 150 in the world and No 1 in New Zealand and has played in the ASB Classic six times.
Now 26 – and while she continues to play tennis at the highest level domestically and is involved with mentoring the country’s top juniors – Jones has found a new passion off the court, launching RealYou, an online platform that aims to inform, support and inspire young Kiwi women, with friend Stephanie Hughes in October 2016.
‘‘The idea came to us in the middle of 2015, when a friend suggested we start a website,’’ Jones says.
‘‘We have articles and real life stories on the site, but my favourite feature, and what makes the site different, is that young women can sign in, ask questions and receive free, personalised support in a kind, non-judgmental forum.’’
While Hughes has a postgraduate diploma in counselling and a conjoint BA and BCom degree in psychology, sociology, and management, Jones says their combined personal experience as young women going through difficulties and ‘‘the work we’ve done on ourselves to raise awareness and develop inner confidence is actually our best asset, more than any qualification’’.
‘‘With Steph’s background in counselling and having worked with young women already, it feels perfect that she gives advice. We generally both give answers to the questions people ask online and other members of the RealYou community can also reply, provided they’re signed in.
‘‘Sometimes we share our own experiences and how we work through them, and other times we give more specific advice.’’
Jones says RealYou was launched ‘‘because as teenagers we learned so much from talking to someone we really trusted. Both Steph and I faced our own challenges as teens with things like body image, feelings of loneliness, uncertainty about what path to follow, relationships, breakups, and very wobbly levels of inner confidence.
‘‘Growing up, and playing tennis professionally, there was a lot of pressure on me, from those around me and from myself, and I felt a huge amount of selfjudgment.’’
She says they aim to answer every email and question they receive, despite growing numbers since the site launched.
‘‘Reading people’s stories and answering their questions takes us both to a very heartfelt and compassionate place.
‘‘The honesty of others inspires us and reminds us why it’s so important not to keep things locked inside, and to share them with someone who won’t judge you and who can help you let go of your suffering.
‘‘The questions we receive inspire and help us too!’’
They also offer private one-toone counselling. ‘‘That’s one of Steph’s favourite areas,’’ says Jones, ‘‘to work directly with young women, often over a longer period of time. That way they have the opportunity to go a bit deeper and the benefits can last longer, which is wonderful.’’
RealYou’s target audience are females between 15-25 years old. ‘‘Steph and I are 29 and 26 respectively, and we feel we can relate most to that age demographic and in turn help them the most,’’ says Jones.
‘‘That age is a time in life where we’re so much trying to find our way, and we’re the most vulnerable to peer pressure and what other people think. If young women can grow their confidence during that time, we think it would set them up for life.
‘‘For me, life as a tennis player felt incredibly lonely and there were mornings I would wake up alone, in a hotel room on the other side of the world, feeling very depressed and reluctant to face the day.
‘‘My happiness was so much dependent on my results – if I won, I was happy. If I lost, I was miserable.
‘‘I struggled a lot with my body image, I always felt I wasn’t in good enough shape – I compared my body to others I saw on tour, and I put myself through harsh diet and exercise regimens.
‘‘I was so hungry to win I found it really hard to stop pushing myself, and to rest when I needed to. In turn, I did a lot of damage to my body, had countless injuries, and I still feel the effect of it today, having had adrenal fatigue since retiring.
Despite all this, Jones says she’s thankful for her experiences and challenges as they ‘‘opened the door for me to look inwards, receive support, and develop tools to find a sense of inner-happiness, a happiness that is independent of my results, the way I look, whether or not a man likes me and if I have people around me or not. It’s a work in progress but I can see my inner confidence and happiness growing all the time.’’
‘‘We’ve both grown a lot from our experiences but, like many women, we also made a load of mistakes we later regretted. If we can help make these notoriously difficult years a bit easier for young women, and inspire them to develop their own confidence and inner happiness, that would be beyond wonderful!’’
Jones says the aim for RealYou in 2017 is to spread the word, so more young women can use it as a resource to get support.
‘‘We’re going into schools and talking to groups of athletes about our own experiences and about developing self-worth, confidence, and inner resources for happiness.
‘‘We want to grow our face-toface practice for one-on-one counselling and eventually, our vision is to run workshops for young women.’’
Hear more from Sacha at stuff.co.nz/life-style and realyou.co.nz.