Graced with flowing blue-haired beauties and pineapple headdresses, the stylish skateboards 30-year-old Tessa Slisz designs are a departure from the norm.

Her company, Azza Skateboards, launched in June 2016, bills itself as designing "skateboards and longboards for girls."

Nineteen-year-old Cristina Port first spotted Azza boards being sold at Thursdays on First last summer.

"I think what sets Tessa's designs apart from other companies is just the femininity of the piece," said Port, who rides with the Devil's Rebels, a college longboarding club at Arizona State University. "Longboarding and skateboarding are a male-dominated sport, which makes it intimidating for women to get interested in."

Port liked her first Azza board so much that when it was time for another, she made sure to get another of Slisz's creations.

"As a designer, I thought skateboarding would be a unique outlet to explore because it's one of the few sports that art and style has always played a big role in," Slisz said. "I always knew that I wanted to represent and empower women through my work, but the seed for what would become Azza was planted when I heard about Skateistan, a nonprofit that empowers girls through skating."

Following her dream, Slisz donated Azza boards to Skate Rising Phoenix, a skateboard empowering program for girls that focuses on addressing important issues like bullying.

After developing her style and doing a lot of research about what it takes to run a business, Slisz started with a website, www.azzaskateboards.com. She's been taking Azza skateboards to pop-up markets around Rochester, including a recent one at Apache Mall.

"I loved doing the mall pop-up," Slisz said. "It was a great way to get the boards out there and let people get a glimpse of the brand and what it is about."

Slisz starts her designs as hand-drawn creations, usually in pen and watercolor. The images are transformed into a digital medium and sometimes enhanced with photography.

Instagram first brought Azza Skateboards to Rachel Bedenbaugh's attention. The 23-year-old lives in Colorado and Florida, and is currently sponsored by Azza. She has boards in three different sizes and designs: the Night Swimmer skateboard, the Luau longboard and the Tutti Frutti mini cruiser.

"In today's skateboard market, I believe using the deck as a work of art is not as popular as it should be," she said.

Why the name Azza? It's "close to the Arabic word for 'female gazelle,'" Slisz said. The company's logo, four hash marks, is "meant to represent a gazelle's horns and ears, as well as skateboards in motion." For Slisz, the association is one of feminine grace and beauty.

"I love making something that makes people happy," Slisz said. "Skateboarding always seems to excite people, even if they don't participate in the sport. It is fun for me to have a girl look at a board, love the design and want to go ride around with it. To me that is just the best feeling!"

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Learn more

— Find Azza Skateboards at azzaskateboards.com, at local pop-up shops, and also at Artistic Framers in downtown Rochester.

— Learn more about Skateistan, a group that uses skateboarding to empower children in Afghanistan, Cambodia, and South Africa, at: www.skateistan.org.

— Slisz was proud to donate skateboards to Skate Rising Phoenix, a skateboard group working to empower girls. See a video about Skate Rising Phoenix at www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfb3-au9Ghw.