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Inspiration June 22, 2018
Female skateboarders are taking the world by storm and defying gender norms.
Whether you think of Tony Hawk or “Sk8r Boi” by Avril Levine, the view of what a typical skater looks like is skewed towards men. However, there are tons of rad female skateboarders out there. Here are a couple of skaters who are defying gender norms, and doing the sport that they love the most.
Elissa Steamer is a 42-year-old professional skateboarder born and raised in Fort Myers, Florida. In addition to skating, Elissa also heads a clothing brand called Gnarhunters. According to ESPN, Elissa Steamer is a four-time X-Game gold medalist. This alone is an amazing accomplishment. In addition to this, she has been skating since the age of 10. ESPN also reports the Elissa Steamer was a great lead in the female skateboarding movement. Not only was she the first woman featured on a Tony Hawk game, but she was also the first female in a skateboarding film.
Lacy Baker is claimed, “The Rebel Queen of Skateboarding” by Rolling Stone. She is a 26-year-old skateboarder who has been talked about and sponsored widely by brands like Nike and Thrasher. Another of Lacey Baker’s amazing feats is training for the 2020 Olympics. Rolling Stone reports that Lacey hopes to qualify for the American team.
Lacey is passionate about the female skate community. She explains this by saying, “The more visibility there is for women skating, the more people are going to realize, ‘Oh, this is actually like a thing.’ It’s something that should have never not been taken seriously.”
Vanessa Torres is another female skateboarder from Los Angeles, California, who is currently 31 years old. She has won one gold medal, one silver medal, and two bronze medals in the X-Games. She has participated in many X-Games since the year 2003. Unfortunately, Vanessa tore her ACL in 2016 and took a year off to recover. She got back into the sport in the spring of 2017.
Lizzie Armanto is another insanely talented female skateboarder. One of her many amazing accomplishments includes being the first woman on the cover of Thrasher Magazine. In the interview with Thrasher, Lizzie talks about how she did not start shredding until age 14. She says she didn’t want her brother to be better than her at skateboarding. That is why she took up the sport in the first place.
Bella Kenworthy is an 11-year-old female skateboarder who is unbelievably talented. One of the brands Bella is sponsored by is Billabong. Bella has been part of The Pink Helmet Posse, which encourages girls to get into skateboarding. It is tough for females to participate in a male dominated sport. This is especially true for girls of a young age. The Pink Helmet Posse tries to combat this by showing other girls just how fun skateboarding is.
Fewer and fewer girls are encouraged to skate from a young age. It may be because it’s seen as a boy thing. Whatever the reason, it can be extremely discouraging to do a sport outside of your comfort zone. Encouraging girls and women alike to get out of the comfort zones and defy gender norms is a great step in empowering women. Get out there; try something new. Even if it’s different from female skateboarders, you might discover a new passion you never knew you had.
