Read a page, learn a trick, conquer fear: Sky Brown releases children's book to inspire fearlessness
You’ve seen Sky Brown with a skateboard. You’ve seen her with a surfboard. Now prepare to see her in 2D.
The Olympic medallist has a new look these days.
The feisty 15-year-old is still equipped with a board and helmet, and decked out in her signature colourful looks, but there is something different as well - she is roughly 10 centimetres tall and drawn in pencil.
Brown appears in this new look as a character in her children’s book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Skateboarding", available to order from 26 March. In it, she details her journey in skateboarding and gives step-by-step instructions on doing beginner tricks in the sport she competed in for Great Britain at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021.
She hopes the book will inspire people to try out skateboarding and face their fears.
“I always love sharing my story,” Brown told Olympics.com. “I always love teaching. It makes me smile and also puts a smile on their face, so I've always loved that, and I thought it was a fun way to share my story.”
From teenage phenom to pencil drawing: Sky Brown’s transformation into a book character
While a hand-drawn, smiling Sky Brown now graces the cover of a children’s book, the athlete herself did not have books about skateboarding lining her shelves when she was growing up.
“It was definitely not skate books,” she said about the things her mother and father would read to her before bed.
Without many children’s books on skateboarding around, online tutorials came to the rescue as Brown searched for more information on the sport. It was a great resource, but still, Brown missed having a book to learn from.
“Would have been cool if I had one,” Brown said. “I was always on YouTube watching how to learn this trick, but I feel like a book would be a fun way.”
She has now written that book. The 40-page illustrated guide is part of the “The Life-Changing Series” published by Magic Cat, which also includes grandmaster Maurice Ashley’s guide on chess, Joy Wilson’s masterclass on baking, and an introduction to drumming by 13-year-old musician Nandi Bushell.
Brown’s edition, “The Life-Changing Magic of Skateboarding”, chronicles her journey from riding a skateboard on her belly as a toddler to winning the bronze medal at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in 2021.
Her talent for surfing and dancing also get a shout out, complete with a colourful spread about the British phenom’s winning run in Dancing with the Stars: Juniors.
“It was just fun,” Brown said about the process of creating the book. “I talked about my life and it brings back a lot of what I've been through. I don't think about it all the time, so it was cool to bring it back and now I get to read it all the time.”
An extra perk was seeing herself re-imagined as a book character. As all other illustrations in the book, the image is the creation of Shaw Davidson, who combines traditional and digital drawing techniques.
“Seeing the characters, seeing a little version of me, it was very cool,” Brown said. “They put me in different outfits and then my hair and then my helmets and seeing the other characters, I thought it was super cute.”
As with the text, Brown was hands-on in selecting the illustrations, including the outfits and characters that were featured on the book pages.
“I had a lot of help, but it wasn't easy,” she said. “I think it came out super good and I'm super proud of it.”
Learning ollies and other tricks from Sky Brown
In addition to giving a colourful re-cap of Brown’s sporting journey so far, the book serves as a how-to guide for those who want to give skateboarding a try.
Taking to the pages now instead of the skate park, Brown leads her readers through the steps of doing beginner tricks like an ollie, kickflip, and frontside 180.
“I wanted to include the basics of skateboarding,” she said. “It's a lot about baby steps. You can't learn a kickflip straight away. You have to learn an ollie before that, and you have to learn different stuff before that, so, I thought 'just put in the basics'.”
In addition to the essentials of her sport, Brown spices up the pages with an introduction to a few of her signature moves such as the kickflip indy, which she landed on a third try to take the bronze at Tokyo 2020.
“I shared my life story and it tells them it wasn't easy,” Brown said. “Skateboarding, it's not easy. It takes time. You have to take time with it.”
Sky Brown: “Facing your fears is the best feeling ever”
Getting more people to try skateboarding is only the beginning of what Sky Brown wants to achieve outside the sport.
Her bigger mission is to inspire people to face and conquer their fears.
**“**We always want to do something, but we get scared,” she said. “When I was alone and I used to go to the skate park, there were only boys there and that, not going to lie, that was a little scary. It was always big boys and they always gave me the look like, 'Why is this little girl in here?' But that shouldn't stop you. You do what you want to do.”
“I hope the book will help me spread a word and inspire,” - Sky Brown to Olympics.com
Brown has since faced many more frightening situations, from walking out on stage at a televised dance contest to tackling a mega ramp with some encouraging words from skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.
Conquering fears has become a key driving force behind her success, and now Brown wants more people to experience the magic of it – be that on a skateboard, on the dance floor, or in anything else her readers choose to do.
“Facing your fears, it's scary but when you do it, it's the best feeling ever,” she explained. “That's what keeps me going. When I'm scared of something and I do it, that feeling of beating yourself is the best feeling and I think that's why I want girls and people just to face their fears and feel that feeling. We only have one life, so you do what you can do and try your best and never give up."