Behind the Book - A Long Story Short
"If you give a girl a bike, she will want to ride and ride and ride..."
The line came to me after a few hours of climbing hills and chasing friends down the mountain on my bike. I was in my car driving home, thinking about how we were the only three women on the trail. Pretty awesome, but also pretty sad. It was 2019. We were in the Bay Area. What was the problem? Why was and is there still a very large gender gap in mountain biking? Why were there so few women of color participating in this sport?
That led me to thinking about all of the other sports that I enjoyed: skateboarding, rock climbing, and surfing. They were all sports dominated by, to be frank, White men.
Perhaps part of the issue stemmed from the lack of opportunity to try these sports at a younger age. Perhaps part of the issue lied in girls, especially minority girls, not seeing themselves represented in these sports and knowing that they, too, could participate in these "extreme" sports.
And so, IF YOU GIVE A GIRL A BIKE was born. Over a year and many, many, oh so many revisions later, it is almost ready to be released into the world. I am terrified, but also excited to share this simple and fun book with you.
My hope with this book is that it will inspire parents to get their daughters involved in these sports at a younger age. And, of course, I hope young girls who read this book will see themselves in these characters and be filled with a desire to try these sports.
Love you, best wishes to you.