Skater/Filmmaker Myriah Marquez on Living With Compassion and the Beauty of Being Alive

Myriah Marquez is a skateboarder and a filmmaker. She lives with an invisible illness, which impacts her life in a multitude of ways. For instance, she lives in her van because she can’t afford an LA apartment on top of her health expenses, and her illness makes steady work challenging. However, she doesn’t let that stop her from doing amazing things. Her documentary short film, Uncomfortably Comfortable, is a beautiful visual (I think it’s a poem) movie. It’s only 13 minutes, but it’s so powerful. Someone described it as the "ultimate road movie (in 13 minutes)," and she recently won best first-time director at a film festival for her film.

She is a co-founder of GrlSwirl, an all Womxn Skateboarding collective, dedicated to inclusion, philanthropy and female empowerment. She is so giving, and in our conversation, I was struck by how much she cares for other people. That also comes across in her movie. In the film, we witness her processing her life while trying to shift society's standards of compassion.