No more boys’ club: 11-year-old skateboarder from Delco breaks glass ceiling

Skateboarding used to be considered a boys’ club, but a local middle schooler is one of the many young women changing that.

Francesca Shuda is only a few months into the sixth grade, but the 11-year-old from Media is already sponsored by Meow Skateboards, her favorite company. The brand, which only sponsors women, has a pro roster including Olympians like Mariah Duran, Vanessa Torres, and Poe Pinson.

“She’s a very determined little lady,” said Gloria Haag, an art teacher with the School District of Philadelphia, who runs the annual Queen of the Park contest at FDR Skatepark. “She’s got a sense of fearlessness and a confidence you don’t find in many girls her age.”

She started riding around 2½ years ago, after she and her brother got a skateboard to share for Christmas. Francesca didn’t take the hobby seriously until she was inspired by a video of 14-year-old X-Games gold medalist Sky Brown.

That’s when she started waking up early before school every day to practice flatground tricks in her basement.

Because there aren’t many high-quality skateparks in Delco, Francesca’s father, Jimmy Shuda, a professional rollerblader in the 1990s and 2000s, built a four-foot half-pipe in their backyard. They spend a lot of time visiting street spots and skateparks across the region.

These days, Francesca said she never feels unwelcome as a girl at the skatepark. She’s often not the only one there.

“People don’t even second-guess it,” she said. “It’s becoming a more safe environment.”

Girls are a growing demographic for the skateboard industry.

Francesca caught Haag’s and Meow owner Lisa Whitaker’s attention after skating the Queen of the Park contest two years in a row. In 2021, Francesca was the youngest competitor, she said, by about a decade. This year, Haag said there were a handful of other girls Shuda’s age. That’s why in 2023, she’s planning on adding a kids’ division to the event.

Back in the day, Whitaker said she was often picked on, even chased out of skateparks and street spots as the only girl in her skate crew.

“The community has become so much more supportive of all kinds of differences,” she said. “It’s night and day.”

That’s not the only way skateboarding has changed in recent years. It’s long been a niche-yet--marketable form of self-expression, but since being added to the Olympics in 2020, it has become much more like a traditional sport.

While not everybody in the community is happy about this shift, Whitaker said it’s been a boon for female skateboarders. Every country that sends a men’s team to the competition has to send a women’s one, as well.

This has gone a long way in breaking down the misconception that skateboarding is only for boys. It’s also legitimized the sport in the eyes of parents who may not have taken it seriously in the past.

Francesca is excited by the new possibilities. She hopes to compete at the Olympics and competitions like the X-Games and Dew Tour some day.

The young skater is fortunate to have the wisdom and support of her father. But the elder Shuda said his daughter is at a disadvantage on the East Coast in some ways. The cold weather is one barrier, but it’s also harder to get noticed by the skateboarding industry, which is mostly based in Southern California.

Although there are a handful of quality skateparks in Philly and the suburbs, the Shudas believe there should be more. They often drive as far as an hour to skate at a large, well-constructed facility.

The family supports the Delco Skatepark Coalition, a nonprofit that helped build the new skatepark in Chester Township. They expect another to open in Upper Darby, hopefully at some point next year, and are lobbying for the construction of a third new skatepark in Middletown Township.

Before signing off, Francesca had advice for any new boarder visiting a skatepark for the first time.

“I get that it’s intimidating,” she said. “But once you start, there’s a community there looking out for you.”