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Girl Is Not A Four Letter Word: How A Skateboarding Legend Is Changing The World For The Next Generation

Cindy Whitehead is showing radical young skaters that 'It's Not About Pretty'

 

 

Is there anyone on the planet supporting female skating as much as  Cindy Whitehead?

A world famous skateboarding legend, Whitehead is most widely known as the first and only woman to ever grace the centrefold and two page spread of a skateboarding magazine, yet her commitment to promoting women in the sport reaches far further than this accomplishment .

This Stylish Florist From New York Is Showing The World That Skateboarding Is For Everyone

A professional skateboarder from the age of 16, Cindy officially retired from the sport at age 22 to begin work as a stylist. In 2013 she launched her own female skate brand Girl Is Not A 4 Letter Word, focused on empowering girls in the skate scene.

Now Cindy has pushed the scene once more, releasing It’s Not About Pretty, the world’s first ever hardback book on the radical women in skateboarding.


Working in sports media for 25 years, Whitehead had noticed over the years that no major photo book on female skaters had ever been created. Instead of being disheartened she decide to use her years of expertise and scene knowledge and create one herself.

With her photographer husband and creative partner Ian Logan, Whitehead took thousands of snapshots from the last few decades of female skating. Between them they managed to cut these snaps first down to hundreds and finally to a final 134 photos of 65 skaters, from ages 5 to 54, to put in the book’s pages, as well as four inspiring skaters to feature on the book’s pull out A5 posters.

 “Girls are out there, and they are rad, and they are killing it”

“I have a library of stuff on guys, but never anything just on the girls, and I wished there was one”says Whitehead.

“Women and girls in skateboarding are capable, they’re interesting, and they’re worthy. When girls pick up a book about skateboarding, I don’t want them to see just guys; I want them to see smart, talented, ambitious girls who are doing things they love and kicking the ass out of social norms.”

The book is published worldwide and now stocked in many different countries. “We published a large amount knowing that there was a demand and hunger for girls skateboarding” says Cindy.

“I want people to know that these girls are out there, and they are rad, and they are killing it” says Whitehead. “People that don’t skate have opened the book and said that they had no idea girls are skating at this level. It’s awesome that the public sees what these girls are doing.”

“People hear about the guys, but these girls, they need to be household names, people need to start talking about them now.”

Get more information on the book here.

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