Who's Rad? Jordan Beal.
Jordan Beal is the girl who is always making sure she promotes other skater girls on her instagram, she's the one at the skatepark smiling and having fun, and working hard at making skateboarding inclusive to all. She is definitely a 100% skateboarder just like the rest of us, but she is also doing things that help keep the girls skateboarding community moving forward and being shown in a positive light. From her blog, Skating Fashionista, that covers events, fashion, interviews, and skateboarding, to her volunteer work with numerous events, Jordan is a force behind bringing in brands that might not otherwise have been interested in using skater girls to promote their products. Read on to see how Jordan, at only 15 years old, manages to do all this plus attend high school. Pretty impressive.
Who's Rad? Jordan (JoJo) Beal
Age? 15
Home is? Cardiff 92007
Home Park or Skate spot is? Carmel Valley Skate Park
How Long Have You Been Skateboarding? 4 years
What do you enjoy most about skateboarding?
You can be as creative as you want plus it’s the best way to get to the beach quick.
Tell us about your board set up – what brand of deck, wheels, trucks?
Arbor deck, Spitfire Wheels, ALWAYS clear grip with stickers underneath and Independent Trucks.
Favorite music to skate to?
I don’t like listening to music when I skate it makes me nervous.
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| Friends - Minna Stess, Arianna Carmona & Jordan Santana |
Girls who skate that inspire you?
Minna Stess and Arianna Carmona because they kill it & if they keep teaching me I will land something amazing soon ;)
Favorite place you've ever skated?
Carmel Valley Skate Park & Clairemont Skate Park because nothing is better than skating with friends.
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| Jordan and the skatercross crew |
Who are your favorite people to skate with?
I like to skate with people who are skating for fun not just talking about it being fun.
Which female skaters inspire you?
I’m inspired by Micaela Ramirez, the founder of Poseiden Foundation. I’m getting ready to go blog at the 8th annual Ladies Day at the Berrics. Girls who open doors and then leave them open for other girls are stylish and inspirational.
Way back when, Micaela opened a door for me by introducing me to Don Brown. He’s my spirit animal.
My interview with Micaela http://skatingfashionista.com/2016/10/poseiden-foundation-getting-ready-for-8th-ladies-day-at-the-berrics/
Sponsors?
As a blogger I have many supporters. My blog is about keeping it stylish on & off the board. I believe more girls skateboard when they see stylish girls skateboarding and get encouragement. I appreciate all the organization that have and continue to help me encourage girls around the world to skateboard for fun. Here’s the link to the blog http://skatingfashionista.com/
I absolutely love people & organizations that share the link or re-post my posts.
Three things you don't know about me:
1. I’m dyslexic.
2. I find Facebook complicated. Why can’t everything be easy like Instagram?
3. I’ve been “moving” to Canada since pre-school.
Tell us about some events or contests you have been involved in?
I enjoyed volunteering for Clash at Clairemont X. I’m still working on finishing up a short video on why it’s such a special event and how the park positively impacts the community.
Much love to Morgnar who trusted me with the Active Ride SnapChat to cover SkaterCross on press day (a pre-event to Clash X). Also thank you to the Element/Etnies crew who challenged me to add videos to a post. I can write all day – videos that’s scary stuff, but with encouragement all things are doable.
http://skatingfashionista.com/documentary/
http://skatingfashionista.com/2016/06/clash-at-clairemont-10-the-skatingfashionista-recap/
http://skatingfashionista.com/2016/04/earth-day-2016-with-etnies-element-active-ride/
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| Jodan at the Ivivva event |
Tell us how you came up with the idea to create a fashion x skateboarding blog?
I wanted to tell the world there’s no uniform in skateboarding. Plus I wanted to say what makes skateboarding fun is not how good you are at it. You can be the best at something and miserable, so why can’t you be OK or even bad at something and happy.
To me skateboarding and fashion are both creative outlets. I will definitely share my opinions – olive green pants are a must this year – but I’m about accepting whatever someone wants to wear. There’s no wrong way to dress or skate.
http://skatingfashionista.com/2016/09/red-bull-curb-kings-september-10th/
You cover brands, events, photographers, skaters – what is your favorite part of doing the blog?
My favorite part of the blog is I meet all kinds of people and get to share their stories. My hope is the stories I share break myths that exist about skateboarding, fashion, and what girls can do.
You like to make sure skateboarding is inclusive and that anyone can try it and get involved – what has the response been like?
Most people are very supportive, however, there are some haters. I blog about the supporters.
You have been involved with Exposure for many years – what is your role in that event?
I love to help at Learn to Skate. I go where Neal Mims tells me, he’s been doing this long enough he knows how to match people up. Plus working any event with Neal is fun. He loves skateboarding and his positivity is contagious.
Prior to the event I help promote it. I have an events page on the blog http://skatingfashionista.com/upcoming-fun-events-for-skating-fashionistas/ so it’s up there and I write posts on girls who share they are coming and on what’s new like this year the fundraising pages & the Yoga Challenge.
Post event, I write a recap of the event through my eyes and those who shared with me. http://skatingfashionista.com/2016/11/exposure-skate-5th-year-11516/ One of the benefits of blogging is you can update any time so if someone’s reading this & has more memories to share just let me know.
What do you like most about being involved in Exposure?
What I like best about EXPOSURE is it’s a charity event. I don’t think anyone wants to talk about domestic violence, however, it’s a real problem and Carol’s house offers women and their families a way out of the abuse. The proceeds from EXPOSURE go to Carol’s House. I was honored to help present the check at this year’s event.
Both founders Amelia Brodka and Lesli Cohen support all girls that skate or want to learn to skate. It’s amazing that it’s free to attend & participate.
Can you share with us what Exposure Skate is/does?
EXPOSURE Skate empowers women through skateboarding. They provide a stage at their yearly event so the world can see #girlscanskate, girls have a chance to learn to skate, donate proceeds to survivors of domestic violence and now have a monthly event called Skate Rising.
What I find amazing is that Amelia made a documentary, Underexposed and didn’t stop there. Many people will tell you about a problem and hope you fix it or it goes away. Amelia & Lesli created EXPOSURE to address the problem.
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| Jordan teaching at Skate Rising |
Can you tell us about the new event you are involved with – Skate Rising?
Skate Rising is part of EXPOSURE Skate. It’s lead by Calli Kelsay. It happens on the 2nd Saturday of every month at the Encinitas Community Park at 9am. It’s targeted to young girls 5-18 and teaches them about a need in the community, how they can help through a service project, and then we skate.
As a blogger, I have overcome my fear of asking for anything, so I invite people & companies to participate. I want to stress that it’s not just girls that can be inspirational in teaching girls to be of service and help them skate. Jimmy Cao, Bryan from SkateXS with his entire team, & Academy Skate Park were on board from the start and help the event happen. I’m looking forward to when GN4LW comes.
The program started in August and so far I’ve been able to write a recap post for each session. This is the link to the first one & you can search the blog for Skate Rising to find the others http://skatingfashionista.com/2016/08/skate-rising-81316/
What’s Next?
I started a series of posts on my homecoming dress. I’ll be skating at several parks and then finding it a new home for prom. The first post is up and an upcoming post on Project Princess, who collects dresses for those who otherwise wouldn’t have a prom dress will be up soon.
http://skatingfashionista.com/?s=homecoming
Make sure you follow Jordan at:
http://skatingfashionista.com/
https://www.instagram.com/skatingfashionista/
https://www.facebook.com/Skatingfashionista/
email skatingfashionista@yahoo.com - but I just heard e-mail is old