Shauna Cross is an American screenwriter, novelist and former roller derby athlete. She skated for the Los Angeles Derby Dolls under the pseudonym "Maggie Mayhem", and subsequently wrote the 2007 novel Derby Girl, a fictionalized version of her experiences in the TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls league. In 2009, she wrote a film adaption of the novel, Whip It, which was directed by Drew Barrymore and released in 2009. She was named one of Variety's 10 Screenwriters to Watch in 2008. After graduating from the University of Texas film school in Austin, Cross worked on a few local film productions before deciding to move to Los Angeles in 2001 to try to break into the screenwriting industry. She supported herself in Los Angeles by working odd jobs optioning screenplays "here and there".In 2007, Cross's novel Derby Girl, about a teenage girl from a small town who takes up roller derby, was published by Henry Holt and Co. Cross herself was involved in the early days of the TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls league, Cross skated under the pseudonym "Maggie Mayhem" in the Los Angeles Derby Dolls team. She originally did not want to write about her roller derby experiences, but her friends convinced to turn the idea into a fictional story. Although she was primarily a screenwriter, a friend of hers introduced her to her book agent, Steve Malk, who loved the idea. Cross wrote Derby Girl over four months, and Malk sold the manuscript (first titled Derby Doll to Henry Holt after shopping it to various publishers. Cross later remarked that "unlike anything else in my writing career so far, it happened very fast".

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