New York, New York - In her exhilarating new book Drop In, Deborah Stoll introduces readers to the "gender rebels" who have blazed a trail in the male-dominated world of skateboarding all the way to the Olympics. In an exclusive chat with TAG24, Stoll dished on why the book is a must-read as the 2024 Paris Games kick off.

Drop In: The Gender Rebels Who Changed the Face of Skateboarding hit bookstores on July 16. For Stoll, the project was a labor of love, as it gave her a chance to finally spotlight the underrepresented talents making waves in the sport.

Set amid the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Drop In charts the evolution of female and non-binary skaters through the journeys of four athletes.

"I knew at the outset I wanted as diverse a cast as possible," Stoll told TAG24. "It's told through the eyes of four very different skaters from different eras, of different gender identities, different styles, and with really different relationships to the skateboarding industry and community."

Stoll was first drawn to Victoria Taylor – better known online as "Skate Moss" – whom Stoll says is the first true "skate influencer" to emerge from the scene. Also featured in Drop In are Vanessa Torres, the first woman to win X Games gold, and Marbie Miller, an "accidental" trans history-maker in the sport.

The final skater of the leading quartet is Alana Smith – the first openly nonbinary Olympic athlete – who began their transition during the interview process for Drop In, which gave the book an unexpected jolt of poignance and emotion.

"I did an interview with them the day after they had taken their first dose of testosterone, and it was just such a personal and incredible moment to not only bear witness to but to then also have that story to tell and to be trusted with," Stoll said.

Drop In's release, of course, coincides with the 2024 Paris Olympics, which come at a time in which both skateboarding – now in its second year of Olympic inclusion – and women's sports are enjoying more visibility than ever.

Even with increased coverage of women's sports, there is a troubling reality that persists: much of the media – and many sports fans – still don't know how to talk about women's sports without perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

"Why is it so hard? Like they're playing the sport. They're doing it," Stoll said. "There's not a lot of difference between what you're doing on the field, in the stadium, or whatever the sport is."

Yet, as Drop In reveals, women's skateboarding has been troublingly defined by these supposed differences for decades.

Female skaters participating in the same competition on the same course are given significantly smaller prizes for a victory, but the issues run even deeper, as women's competitions are often few and far between, with skaters given little time or opportunity to practice their skills on a higher level.

With female and non-binary athletes now earning real buzz in the sport, another challenge emerges as these stars are repeatedly hailed as the "first" to hit certain landmarks in skateboarding.

"You see, unfortunately, the pressure that this puts on those athletes," Stoll explained. "All of a sudden, it's such a big deal that she's so great, and it's like – don't do that. You're putting so much undue pressure."

As these trailblazers assert themselves in skating, female athletes are still put into stereotype-defined boxes, often portraying women's sports as catty, jealousy-driven, or any other Gossip Girl-esque cliché you can think of.

As Stoll explains, these perceptions couldn't be further from the truth. While the skaters are certainly competitive – it is a sport after all! – the field is largely defined by something else: camaraderie.

"I wonder if it has more to do with the rise of a spotlight on women athletes, because the more you see about the WNBA or female soccer players, the more you see that kind of camaraderie, Stoll said.

"The stories of people, you know, catfighting are largely fabricated by the press to make it more dramatic, which is weird. They never do that with men."

That spirit of camaraderie is often evoked by the goal of bringing attention to women's sports overall. While the athletes are competing against one another on the field, there's a larger, systemic force that they're all fighting together.

And sometimes, to bring much-needed attention to their side of the sport, these athletes must learn to play the media game themselves.

"It's like, well, what are you willing to do to push forward this thing? This thing that's what you want to do most in the world and that you've been fighting for for years," Stoll explained.

"So if you've got to play the villain, if you've got to be one of the Spice Girls to fit into that box, who cares? Because in the end, they know what's real and what's not real – and the other athletes know."

Thankfully, the Paris Games are ready to offer a big step as more women take on roles behind the scenes in year two of Olympic skateboarding.

"It's super cool that there are more women behind the scenes in Paris," Stoll said.

Vanessa Torres, who was the first-ever female judge at the 2021 Olympics, will return for this year's skateboarding competitions, while Amelia Brodka, the co-founder of the Exposure Skate Organization, will be commentating.

"Having a path not only for women skaters to have a career with the Olympics but also behind the scenes [is so important]," Stoll said. "So if you don't want to be a pro skater anymore and you want to stay in the industry, I think that's opening up a lot of opportunities."

After the recent X Games scored an "exponentially higher" audience for the women's competitions than ever before, Stoll is optimistic that the trend will continue in Paris.

As for her dreams for the legacy of Drop In, she admitted she doesn't want the path blazed by these skaters to be a lonely one.

"I hope it's just the first in books like this."

To learn more about this month's hottest book releases, check out TAG24's July Book Release Radar.