Girl Empowerment: Girls ROCK! (Oh, YEAH!)

In continuing our series on GIRL EMPOWERMENT, this is a powerful and meaningful post from Alanna Mallon - a Merchandising Designer at FPgirl.com. Alanna’s last Girl Empowerment post - The Importance of Empowering Young Girls - had a huge response on our Parents Connection blog.

I say it all the time… but for Girls Rock Camp Alliance, it’s more than just a slogan.

Recently I had the opportunity to see a friend of mine perform keyboards in a band LIVE in front of 200+ people at a famous rock club in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Is she a musician? Nope, not even close.

Prior to this event she had never picked up an instrument, certainly never sang anywhere outside of her car and definitely never performed in front of a live audience in her adult life. How did she do it?

Well, she attended a weekend long fundraiser to raise money for Girls Rock Camp Boston, a week long summer camp that teaches girls 8-17 years old how to play an instrument, compose an original song and perform at a local rock venue all IN A WEEKS TIME.

The camp works to “empower girls and encourage positive self esteem through music education and performance”. My friend and 40 other amazing women worked for an entire 3-day-weekend doing a condensed version of rock camp learning either guitar, keyboards, bass guitar or vocals, and then performed their song live with their “bands”. In addition to learning how to be an awesome lady rocker, the attendees participated in other activities that are available to the girl campers; self-defense, songwriting, empowerment workshops and tons more.

My friend is a sweet, fun, mild mannered mom of two pre-teen girls, but check her out in the photo below, she totally rocks!

At these “ladies sessions”, Girls Rock Camp Alliance raises money for scholarships and instruments for the Girls Rock summer camps. This camp looks so amazing, I can’t wait until my daughter is old enough to attend. I love the idea of these girls coming to camp as total strangers, spending the week learning how to be a real girl rocker (while overcoming some massive fears), and then be empowered to take the stage as a band a week later. After you do something like that as a pre-teen or teen, I imagine you would truly believe that there was NOTHING YOU COULD NOT DO.

Our FPgirls love to rock and your girl is no exception. And I bet you will love seeing them take that stage and doing something they never thought they were capable of doing.

Girl’s Rock Boston is a member of Girls Rock Camp Alliance, which has 35 girls rock camp organizations worldwide. Find one near you at Girls Rock Camp Alliance.

About the Author:

Alanna Mallon is the merchandise Designer at FPgirl.com. She’s responsible for designing all the great products that FPgirls love to make their own. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and 2 children.