USC alumna skates through life despite adversity
For many USC students, skateboarding is a quick way to get to class that allows for a few extra minutes of sleep. For USC alumna Amelia Brodka, it’s not only her profession and passion, it’s also her personal battleground.
Fighting for her right · During her senior year at USC, Brodka produced Underexposed: A Women’s Skateboarding Documentary, a film focusing on the lack of female recognition in the traditionally male-dominated sport. She argues that skateboarding needs to evolve to match its demographics. – Photo courtesy of Julian Bleecker
During her senior year at USC, she made a feature-length film focused on women in the skateboarding industry, but she didn’t stop there. Her enthusiasm for getting more girls involved in skating catapulted from the screen and into real life. Her nonprofit organization, EXPOSURE, hosts the largest women’s skateboarding competition in the world, presents inspirational speeches at schools and showcases healthy living — all while using the profits to benefit survivors of domestic violence.
“The first time I saw a skateboard, I was about 7 years old and we’d just come to America from Poland,” Brodka said of her introduction to the sport. “My brother had a skateboard but he didn’t let me use it. And then [the skateboard] got run over by a car, didn’t skate again for a while,”
On a family trip, Brodka went to see the X Games. Tucked away in the corner of the competition, she saw the female competitors, and suddenly, it clicked — that was where she belonged. Seeing people she could relate to made the sport more accessible.
“I love skateboarding. It has shaped my entire life and my entire outlook on life, it has essentially taught me how to be diligent and focused enough to get into a college like USC,” Brodka said.
For most of her high school career on the East Coast, Brodka competed against boys until she was told about professional competitions for females in the West. Though she was becoming more aware of women’s role in the sport, she still noticed that sponsors showcased and supported the guys on the team more than the girls. It was these observations and experiences that led her to realize the industry needed to catch up with its expanding demographics.
“There weren’t that many girls doing it,” Brodka said. “I don’t know whether I would blame that on any sort of barrier but I just know that in my town, there was only one other girl who skated,”
Brodka’s film was her senior project as a narrative studies major at USC, but it went far beyond fulfilling an assignment for a grade. UNDEREXPOSED: A Women’s Skateboarding Documentary included not only Brodka’s personal story but also interviews with other professional skateboarders, high-ups in both the publishing and marketing side of the skateboard industry and even the president of the International Skateboarding Federation. Her navigation of the industry from both the perspective of a professional and a writer allowed her to emphasize the industry’s need for evolution.
“The skateboarding industry follows the same structure over the last few decades. It has existed because it was only guys that did it. Now there’s a rise of girls that do it and it’s different, and the industry doesn’t think about it or the new customers and how to speak to them and how to engage them and how to, through that, showcase them,” Brodka said.
Despite the flaws that Brodka sees in the skateboarding community, she doesn’t harbor any resentment. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Her immense love for the sport and its community is the very thing that drives her to institute change.
“I think it’s a wonderful community, it’s an incredible activity to do. It should feel as if it’s open for anyone to participate in,” Brodka said. “Beyond that, girls and women should feel encouraged to participate in whatever they want to be in. Their perception of what they can be involved in shouldn’t be shaped by the media. They should be able to step outside the preconceptions.”
Brodka doesn’t plan to stop at finding more opportunities for female skaters; she said she also hopes to positively impact other aspects of their lives. Through exposure to skateboarding, women are educated and empowered to make healthier decisions. Women who have survived domestic violence are given second chances through EXPOSURE’s funding, and both boys and girls alike are inspired by speeches given in schools by members of the organization.
It’s hard to say what the future holds for someone who seems so unstoppable, but one thing’s for sure, Brodka can always be found on her board.
“No matter what I will be doing, I will always be skateboarding. I can’t imagine my life without it,” she said.