With big bright eyes, long curly hair and a sweet smile, Wu Xia is a cute, fashionable girl – and cameras just love her.

At only 21, she likes nothing more than to dress like a princess in beautiful gowns. On other occasions she likes the smart, stylish look of a simple black suit.

But for all of her feminine tastes, more often than not the diminutive Wu can be found clad head-to-toe in thick leather and a helmet. Only the hint of a ponytail peeping out from under her helmet gives a clue to her femininity.

To the surprise of many, including friends, Wu is a motorcycle racer, the only professional female motorcycle competitor in China. And she’s very, very good.

In just three short years, through courage and hard work, she has gone from being a rookie to a star in a sport overwhelmingly dominated by men.

Last year, Wu was named champion in the 150cc group of the CSBK, China’s highest level motorcycle racing competition. In December, she was also ranked eighth in the 600cc category in the FIM Asian Cup, in which she is also the only woman competitor.

Wu’s journey to stardom started when she was 12. Secretly she tried to ride her father’s motorcycle back in her hometown of Yancheng in Jiangsu Province.

But the experiment ended badly with Wu quite shaken. Not by the few scratches she received after crashing the bike into a large tree, but because she was worried about being found out by her father and getting into trouble.

Fast forward six years and upon finishing her national college entrance exam, Wu moved to Guangzhou – capital of Guangdong Province in southern China – and entered a whole new world. There she lived near Baiyun Mountain among many other motorcycle racers.

No longer having to ride in secret, she started to get serious about the sport. Wu recalls her debut race in June 2004 was a “terrible disaster.”

“Hopelessly inexperienced, I ran off the track at almost every turn,” she recalls. To this day she still cannot remember how many times she fell before finally reaching the finish line. Nevertheless, Wu loved every moment of that “disaster.”

“I sensed my true self in that race,” she says. “I felt I had found my balance point and I wanted to prove I could do it. And I wanted to keep going to the highest level of competition I could.”

But it was not easy, especially for a woman. Motorcycle racing is hard requiring great physical strength, knowledge about bikes, the willingness to train hard and the courage to face danger.

But she was determined and wanted to see just how far she could go in a overwhelmingly male-dominant sport.

Wu still remembes a racer she encountered when she first started. “The guy mocked me and said he would stop racing if I ever beat him,” she says. “I was so discouraged. It was such an insult. I swore to myself that one day I would beat him.”

Unfortunately, the racer quit the sport before she was able to gain her revenge. “But I know I’m much faster than he was. And I will never forget him. He is a reason for me to go faster and faster.”

Even after Wu started winning in the 150cc category, she still encountered similar criticism from time to time. It was a similar story in the 600cc competition. Rival riders told her she would never beat them because she was so small.

“Again I felt insulted and discouraged. But I didn’t show it. All I can do is to prove myself in competition,” says Wu.

The same guys were shocked to see her ranked No. 8 in FIM Asian Cup on 600cc bikes.

“Now the same guys always warn each other to be careful, otherwise I will defeat them. They see me as a threat now, which makes me proud,” she says, smiling.

Wu can’t remember how many times she has fallen during training and competition. Thankfully her thick “leathers” have prevented serious injury, but scratches are inevitable.

“Everyone is afraid of falling off and I’m no different,” Wu admits. “But I try to learn from every fall.”

Wu’s parents thought their daughter was studying English and computer science in Guangzhou until she told them the truth after winning a few trophies.

And when Wu took them to one of her races, they could not help but fear for her safety. While people in the crowd were calling for her to go faster, her mother cried for her to slow down.

“But they support me strongly because they see how happy I am when I win. And they understand that it’s my dream to race,” says Wu who now has her sights set on becoming the first Chinese woman to qualify for the world’s top motorcycling competition, the Moto GP.