Introducing Merida Miller
Meet Merida Miller
After last month's story with CENTO'S new 2.0 bike, we are now happy to have Merida Miller joining the OPEN family.
Some people talk about creating change. Merida just gets on with it. Born in the US and now based in Girona, she is the founder of PROJECT FEARLESS, a non-profit that gives girls and gender fluid youth in the Netherlands a space to build confidence, break stereotypes and find their voice, through skateboarding, cycling, making things and doing stuff that scares them a little...
She believes confidence is not something you are taught, it is something you practice.
She is also a TEDx speaker, a gravel racer ("professional amateur" in her own words) and definitely a "hype girl"!
From fashion designer to fearless
Merida spent years as an Innovation & Concept Designer at brands like Under Armour, before walking away from the corporate world to build something she believed in more. She's spent the past seven years as the CEO of Project Fearless, helping girls and athletes build confidence through action, not by waiting until they feel ready. That philosophy runs through everything she does, from the programs at Project Fearless to how she approaches her own gravel racing.
Racing for joy, not podiums
Merida came to cycling the way lot of people do, sideways, unexpectedly, and then completely... She found road first but 2 years later fell in love with gravel, and what hooked her was not the speed or the competition. It was the community, and the particular kind of honesty that comes from long days in the dirt.
She opened up publicly about anxiety, ADHD and what she calls "mental mechanics "(listen to the great CASTELLI podcast for further insights into her mind). Her answer? Gratitude, hype crews and showing up anyway. She does not race to win. She races to finish happy and to CHEER everyone else while she does it!
Below are a few pictures we took recently when we visited her at her base camp in Girona. It was a gray, overcast day, but Merida's positive attitude brightened it up!
Riding with purpose
At OPEN we build bikes for people who want to go further, and Merida embodies that spirit; she is not racing for a number on a results sheet, she is riding to prove something to herself, to create space for others and to show that the cycling world is bigger and welcoming.
She is also been doing the work to make that true, with her previous board role at "No Ordinary Women" and being a contributor on "Cycling Culture Club", building global communities for riders who did not always feel like the sport was built for them.
Welcome to the family Merida!
Listen to Merida's story on her own words
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