In 2020, publisher Carolina Amell reached out to me and asked if I would like to contribute to her upcoming book, Skate Like a Girl.
This gorgeous coffee table book features skaters, photographers, and community organizers in the global female skate community, and you can buy it here.
Carolina featured my work and my words in a large spread in the book, as well as many images sprinkled throughout.
More information about Skate Like a Girl book:
“This incredible photographic celebration of inspirational female skaters from all over the globe will appeal to skate fans of every age.
In ever-increasing numbers, girls and women are gathering at skate parks and competing in skateboarding events on nearly every continent. In stunning photographs of remarkable female skaters in action, this book celebrates the incredible range of styles, ethnicities, and ages that make up a rapidly growing community.
Skate Like a Girl features professional skaters, pioneers and newcomers, skate photographers and filmmakers, downhill skateboarders, longboarders, and gold medalists. You’ll meet skaters who are moms, models, artists, and engineers. What they all have in common is that skating is their way of life. Hailing from all over the world, each woman is profiled in her own words of wisdom about going after her dreams, falling hard, and getting right back up. Filled with empowering images and inspiring words, this book will encourage girls and women of every age to get on a board and shred!”
Photos above include some of my images you can see printed in Skate Like a Girl.
Below is the excerpt I wrote for my feature in the book:
I enjoy skating, perhaps above all my other interests. There’s a freedom of being, expression, and creativity when I am riding a board. The majority of my time on a skateboard results in being in a flow state, often with eyes opened wide and a smile that spans the width of my face. This luxury of life can be savored anywhere in the world with pavement- just alone, laughing and carving alongside friends, or meeting new ones. Each person possesses an individual, unique style and relationship to skateboarding. Skating is a free pleasure that can bring fulfillment.
Being on a board completely immerses me in the landscape demanding that I be present in the moment and in tune with the environment. Steep, twisted roads in the mountains, long and scenic stretches through the desert, suburban neighborhoods, sprawling urban centers and coastal paths surrounded by warm, salty breezes and palm trees provide empty canvases to explore on a board.
I primarily focus on shooting womxn skating because the skate imagery I’ve seen throughout my life tends to be male dominated. My girlfriends and I make skating an integral part of our lives and I want to showcase that passion, as well as the femininity and style womxn bring to skate culture.
I hope my imagery can inspire and empower womxn and girls to feel more comfortable getting on a board: the feeling that they also have a community. I believe on a subconscious level for some, if one doesn’t see someone who looks like them portrayed doing certain things, one doesn’t always know that those things are an option for them. The growth, catharsis, health and happiness an individual can gain from skateboarding should be accessible to everyone.
My biggest takeaway from capturing women skating is the female community I’ve built, connecting with womxn around the world. Womxn supporting womxn is powerful, refreshing, and invigorating.
My Skate series is born of these things.
Again, you can get your copy of Skate Like a Girl here!
Special thanks to all of the amazing women in the photographs. Love you all and I will cherish the memories we created together, always! -XO