I had a serious adventurous streak as a kid.
Then, in my early 20s, I finally had my chance.
I signed up for my first skydiving course, and it changed my life.
Photo courtesy of Mohamed Youssef
People skydive for different reasons.
One of the groups that often dont get recognized in this space is moms.
1.Kellie R. Torio
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Photo courtesy of Mohamed Youssef
Kellie Torio and her partner live in Los Angeles with their two-year-old daughter.
She and her husband both grew up snowboarding with their families.
When she first applied, she was attending a fashion institute and studying design.
Photo courtesy of Nate Hughes
Kellie laughs when she retells the story; I was like, Theres no way.
Nothing in my background says I would be a good fit for this.
But she was wrong.
Photo courtesy of Tsalani Lassiter
She enjoys training on everything from rappelling to snow anchors to swift water rescue.
Check out Kellies account for exciting photos of her search and rescue training and heartwarming photos of her daughter.
2.Janelle Hill
Photo by Pouyan Niknejad
Janelle Hill grew up spending time in the outdoors.
Today, Hill and her partner are raising two outdoorsy kids in Ventura, California.
Her sons fight every morning over who gets to take out the compost, and thats OK with her.
3.Bisan Sader
Bisan Sader is a skydiver who has done over 700 jumps.
Learning to skydive was her gift to herself after overcoming barriers earlier in life.
Sader married at 14 and dropped out of middle school.
She completed her GED at age 16 and had her first child by the time she was 17.
She then taught herself to drive, enrolled in college online, and completed an associate degree.
By 19, she was a divorced single mom working three jobs to support her son.
Sader eventually built a successful career with a Fortune 500 company before she remarried and had a baby girl.
She and her partner of six years are both professional skydivers.
Sader and her husband recently spent two summers working together at a drop-zone in California.
On the weekends, he worked as a tandem instructor and she filmed his tandem students in free-fall.
This proud mama loves helping people overcome their fears and find joy in the sky.
Bisans feed is a mix of adrenaline-pumping skydives and relaxing weekends spent hiking around northern California with her family.
They wrote the book in 2018 for their daughter and also to help normalize queer black families.
I personally was tired of seeing books with white families only, Nyesha explains.
The options were very limited for queer families.
The two women met in 2009 while working together at a summer camp in Fishtail, New York.
Samantha taught me how to make my first fire and put up my first tent, Nyesha explains.
They started dating in 2010 and got married four years later.
These days they are busy working and co-parenting their 14-month-old daughter.
Their daughter has already been to six states as well as to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.
All five women were stationed in Pensacola, Florida, when Hughes went through military flight school.
Graduation from naval flight school was one of the highlights of her life.
Hughes loves flying with her daughter at her local flight club in Alabama.
7.Jeri Villarreal
Jeri Villarreal completed 22 triathlons in the last four years.
Villarreal didnt start again until she turned 36.
That year she ran two miles, then four miles, then eight miles.
Eventually it was 21 miles, and she hasnt looked back since.
Her favorite part of competing is the community and the feeling that everyone is in it together.
Check out Villarreals feed for workout tips, beautiful racing suits, and personal motivation.
8.Katie Cahn
Cahn is a fly-fishing guide who grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
After working in the rafting industry for 15 years, she taught herself to cast by watching YouTube videos.
In 2016, just six months after getting married, Cahn was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma.
Cahn started living according to the mantra, tomorrow is not promised but today I am alive.
She quit her job as an educator and became a fly-fishing guide.
(She also learned how to metalsmith and began practicing yoga.)
Today, Cahn lives with her husband and infant daughter in upstate South Carolina.
Life can be full of uncertainty, but living intentionally has helped immensely, she says.
Throughout it all, fly-fishing continues to be a way of life for her.
In her free time, she ventures alone high into the mountains to fish for native brook trout.
It has since grown into a national organization with 13 regional chapters.
Whatever it is that sets your soul on fire, thats what you should be doing.
Nobbe believes in modeling joy and pursuing our passions while empowering other mothers to do the same.
10.Rae Wynn-Grant, Ph.D.
Rae Wynn-Grant is a large-carnivore ecologist and conservation biologist.
She studies grizzly bears in eastern Montana, black bears in Nevada, and primates in the Congo.
Wynn-Grant is also a National Geographic Fellow as well as the mom to a three-year-old daughter.
Growing up, she didnt spend a lot of time in nature.
She didnt go on her first hike until she was 20.
(By comparison, her daughter went on her first hike when she was two.)
She went on to complete an M.S.
They also enjoy spending time at home in their community garden.
She lives in LaVerkin, Utah, where she and her husband are raising a five-year-old son.
So she asked a few acquaintances to join her for a hike.
