Stories have long been a source of inspiration, something young people can latch onto and use as a focal lens to see where their life might go. Movies give a more visceral quality to those stories as the action unfolds before your eyes and your imagination is now only in charge of seeing you in that role. For many viewers, the movie “Whip It” (2009) showed not just the action of roller derby, but what that world potentially held for them.

For Slayer Mars, that movie piqued her interest in roller derby, but it wasn’t initially enough to get her out to try the sport. That motivation came from her roommate’s mother who happened to know someone on Keweenaw Roller Derby (KRD).

There was a meet-and-greet event coming up, and, “she kind of pressured me a little bit to go,” remembers Slayer Mars

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