Who gets to tell the story of skateboarding?

For decades, skateboarding has been a patriarchal affair: in the ’70s it was a sun-bleached punk wreaking havoc on Venice Beach. In the ’80s it drained suburban pools in short shorts and zero shirts. In the ’90s it moved East and tagged the streets in backwards hats and baggy pants. And in all those decades, women were conspicuously absent—rarely seen in videos, seldom featured in magazines, and frequently compensated at contests with “exposure” in lieu of cash.

Now their stories get told in Drop In: The Gender Rebels Who Changed the Face of Skateboarding. Author Deborah Stoll introduces readers to four skateboarders who defied expectations of gender, talent, physical ability, and mental capacity to fight the status quo and blaze a path to today’s more equitable skate culture. Readers will meet Alana Smith, the first openly nonbinary athlete in Olympic history; Vanessa Torres, the record-breaking runaway; Marbie Miller, the boundary-breaking trans athlete and Victoria Taylor, the skate rookie turned social media sensation.

Set against the backdrop of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where skateboarding made its historic debut, Drop In spotlights their paths from outsiders to pioneers, illustrating the role a diversity of human experiences played in changing the sport, and society at large.

Stoll’s reporting, combined with her passion for storytelling and social justice, make Drop In a groundbreaking addition to sports literature, pop culture and gender studies. With dives into sports history and a deep-seated intimacy with her subjects’ inner lives, Drop In becomes a tale of identity, courage and the struggle for acceptance.

Stoll is a journalist, lyricist, writer and animator. Her work has appeared in The Economist, the Los Angeles Times and Fresh Yarn. Her band, Hot As Sun, has opened for Phantogram, Gotye and Foster the People with her music featured on
Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Glee, and the movie For a Good Time, Call. Her first book, Unvarnished, was cowritten with Eric Alperin. Drop In is her first book as a sole author.

Drop In: The Gender Rebels Who Changed the Face of Skateboarding is out now by Dey St. ($26.99)

–From staff reports