The lady behind Longboard Girls Crew Valeria Kechichian was the first longboarder to ever give a TEDx Talk last year during Madrid’s TEDx event organised by IE. The subject was Shaking up the Order and her Talk ‘We Ride The Shift‘ on society, women and why we do what we do here through LGC received amazing feedback from all around the world. This year she was invited by the organisation team to do an interview to use as a promotional video for this year’s TEDx event themed Why Not? We think it feats perfectly with our values.

Check Valeria out explaining what the concept Why Not? means to her and how she believes fear holds us back from achieving our true potential, how society works following rules that someone else created for us and what we achieve when we break free from them.

Some of our favourite quotes:

“We’re real women, all shapes, sizes, color and religion doing something we love, gender-label free”

“When I started defying those rules that someone else created for us to have us under control I realised one thing: that it was all a lie”

“It took some time and many experiences to realize that we’re not meant to live like that. We think we’re free but we’re not. Mental slavery is a strong force, and we actually do that to ourselves”

“Fear is the best way to control people. We have fear of being different, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of what others may think. Not only we control ourselves with these but we control everyone around us”

“If anyone does something different or is daring to challenge the established we criticize them fiercely, even with close friends and family members. This applies to work, personal or social decisions. We judge absolutely everything and say what’s right or wrong according to the rules someone else created for us and that actually make our lives miserable”

If you’re in Madrid don’t miss this years’ TEDxIEMadrid event on June 2nd in Madrid’s Google Campus. All info HERE! You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram to be updated on everything.

After the interview Valeria also taught the IE staff how to longboard! They all stepped out of their confort zone and tried something new. We think they did great. Check it out!

WHAT HAVE YOU TRIED LATELY FOR THE FIRST TIME? Tell us in the comments!