Kerry Gross Is Riding Her Bike Across America To Find Women Who Dare

Kerry Gross is a 26-year-old woman riding her bicycle from coast to coast in one summer, to find and interview America’s most daring women. Her interviews will be published as a podcast, “Women Who Dare,” later this year.

I’m Corielle, the founder of liftUPlift, a Chicago-based technology company on a mission to empower women worldwide. I interviewed Kerry earlier this year when she joined the liftUPlift Alliance, our global coalition of women creating the change they want to see in the world.

Kerry told me that she got the inspiration for her incredible cross-country journey while reading the story on the back of a Clif Bar — “adventurous guy does adventurous thing.” Kerry was also the only woman in her Adventure Racing bicycle club, and she felt a desperate drive to find other daring women and share their stories with the world.

I can hardly imagine the incredible courage and stamina it takes to ride a bicycle across the United States in one summer, but I can empathize with Kerry’s craving to elevate the stories of great women. Our culture is overflowing with stories of great men, yet we know so little about the great women of our past or present. To find them and share their stories requires legwork.  

To make this project possible, Kerry launched a crowdfunding campaign and asked her network to nominate bold, inspirational women around the United States. In the late spring, she plotted a course from California to Maine, covering 6,000 miles by bike, which will allow her to interview at least 50 of the most daring women in America.

“I’m interviewing women who defied expectations,” Kerry told me. “I want to know about the unstoppable women, who keep going even when the going gets tough because there’s an inner fire driving them to do what they’re doing.”

She recently interviewed Lorraine Moller, a New Zealand native who now lives in Colorado. Lorraine won the Boston Marathon in 1984, and she was the only woman to compete in the first four Olympic marathons!

Some nights, Kerry pitches her tent and camps outside; on other nights, she bunks with friends on others or arranges lodging through Warm Showers, a community of people who open their homes to touring bicyclists at no charge.

Kerry is currently en route to Minnesota, and she’ll arrive in Chicago this Friday, July 14.  There are so many unstoppable women in Chicago, where we have more female founded startups than anywhere else on earth, so I wasn’t able to choose just a few daring women for Kerry to interview.

Instead, liftUPlift is hosting a party for Kerry at our woman-owned coworking space, Second Shift in Logan Square. She’ll have the opportunity to interview eight game-changing women entrepreneurs at that event, and meet many more. (You can read more and RSVP for that event on liftUPlift’s blog).

This is what liftUPlift is all about. We find and connect women like you — like Kerry Gross — who are out there doing amazing, important things, and we help you get the visibility, backing and inspiration you need to unlock your full potential and do optimal good for the world.

Join our Alliance at www.liftUPlift.com/VIP, and come back to Lioness Magazine each Wednesday to read more stories from women creating the change they want to see in the world.