<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Ash applied to last year's ROLL Models Program because she wanted to make a difference in people's lives and make the changes that she would like for her growing up. She is deeply committed and passionate about skateboarding, which she describes as a really liberation activity which forces you to challenge yourself and grow. Ash stands that many times skateboarding has helped her through depression, as well as some others she knows. Although, she feels that there is a long mission to carry on when it comes to gender equity on skateboarding but she believes the situation is getting better thanks to the community it has been created.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

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<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>&nbsp;For Ash, “empowering and showing that we exist is the first step to being seen as equal”.&nbsp; She wanted to encourage and support fellow women in the industry but she struggled to find any woman making their own skateboards. Assuming this, she set out to reclaim skateboards for women by producing the decks herself. Her workshops are intended to get women involved with creating their own graphics on skateboards; puting their own messages into the world. This is a form of personal protest and an effort to outnumber the bad graphics that exist.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

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<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Ash’s projects were kind of different from the rest of the 2020 ROLL Models. Despite some of them have used art and creative activities in their programmes, Ash highlighted the creative aspect as the main topic. Her program was aimed at teaching womens how to build skateboards and then teach them to ride it.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

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<p><span><span><span><span><em><span>“It was really cool to be part of the project. My project was to make 5 women build up a skateboard – It was about teaching womxn how to build a skateboard and also how to ride it as well.”&nbsp;</span></em></span></span></span></span></p>

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