There's a huge disparity between what cis men and cis women and nonbinary folks and trans folks are getting paid in the music industry.

CIS men are making 88% more than cis women in Des Moines.

Less than 5% of the people and the folks that produce the media that we engage with.

5% representation of cis women, nonbinary and trans folks.

That's a pretty astounding lack of voices.

You ready to rock out this summer?

Awesome.

We serve cis girls nonbinary and trans youth ages 8 to 18, and we're cusping on seven year olds too.

We are a year round program.

We have a flagship program that occurs during the summer and that's Rock camp.

It's a two week immersive experience where young people learn how to play an instrument.

They form bands, write original songs, record those original songs.

We're going to take a moment to find our voice.

And this is an opportunity for you to just say your name as loud as humanly possible and then say, I rock!

Come on, DJ, I know you've got this.

What is your name?

Oh, yeah.

We're going back inside.

They'll come in on day one.

We assign them an instrument.

We're going.

To play a little clip from your your song that you're going to be performing at the Showcase on Sunday in two weeks at.

Woolys.

We've got Levi on bass for the second year in a row on keys and voice.

We've got Megan.

Yeah, we're stretching, We're trying new things.

We're getting courageous.

This is the one.

Time you get to make all the noise you.

Want.

We have campers that have never played an instrument ever.

Your drummer.

You've won.

Thank you.

Every single day they get a 20 minute instrument lesson with our band coaches.

If you're brand new to guitar, maybe that is going to be hard to play.

So maybe you might start by just doing something like this.

They have two band rehearsals a day.

And then there's a variety of workshops and classes that we offer.

We're very chaotic at moments.

We can be very we can get off topic.

I really like it.

It's really different from school because everyone's so like accepting of everything Oh, you give me goose bumps, I'm gonna.

Be in a band.

Coach.

You get to help pull the things out of them and it really is a pulling.

There's no talking to you.

There's no talk.

Do you believe in life after love?

That's awesome.

I love that.

We'll see kids not really feeling confident.

You can see it.

Others are just like, I have all of this energy and all these ideas.

I just got to get it out there because it's the first time I feel as though someone is listening to me.

People talk about empowerment as though it's this arrival point, but it's it's a journey.

It's a constant journey.

And so what we're trying to do is maybe point out like, Hey, you just experienced a moment there.

Why don't you, like, I want to encourage you to take just a pause to recognize I did the thing.

I fully understand why, Ive definitely become more confident.

In just as a musician and as a person, I feel like out of all the days of the year.

I'm definitely more comfortable and confident in who I am.

During Girls Rock.

Tiny tweaks make big change, but there's so much focus on the big change that we forget.

To mark these little moments along the trail.

You've taken the time you're doing the work.

Trust that it's there.

It's like as simple as just being like, okay, grab the stand, grab the mic.

Get your mic out of that stand.

Who takes the time to just break it down in those sort of small ways?

One, two, three, four.

Can you hear the chord changes?

Like, Yeah.

So.

Good morning.

Good morning.

One parent emailed me after day one and was like, My kiddo is totally exhausted.

And the reason they told me they're totally exhausted is because they don't feel as though there's anywhere they don't belong.

And so they just have this.

I want to be everywhere all at once.

In 8 hours, we're able to make that impact.

We talk a.

A lot about more trans youth issues.

And, you know, I'm trans myself, so I feel like it's a really.

Big deal to talk.

About that and people in normalize it.

People are like too scared.

To talk about that kind of stuff.

All the hard work that we have done the past two weeks, three out of the four of you have never played your instruments before, which is really impressive.

You learned a cover songs, which wasn't an easy song, by the way, and you wrote a song in pretty much like 4 to 6 days, which is very impressive.

And so we're at this point where we are nearing our show.

And so whatever we play today is what is perfectly acceptable and awesome at the show.

So yeah.

I think for Girls Rock, it not only changes the lives of the campers, but it changes the lives of everyone involved.

And what I think that does is it takes that change back out into our greater community.

When cis women feel empowered in spaces, when trans people feel seen and safe.

That reverberates across the community.

No pun intended.

I love rock and roll.

I was really, really nervous because usually I get judged a lot.

But nobody did judge me and I made a lot of great friends.

The only thing I know that is real is the sound of a screaming girl.

It's all around.

It's a great experience to increase confidence and also just to learn.

One of like the greatest form of expression, musical expression.

At first I was afraid, I was petrified.

Were asking young people to be seen and heard and that their stories are important and we need to hear them.

We just want to keep pulling that out and keep encouraging them to take those steps, to take that microphone and really make it theirs.