♪ Thinking you're not coming back, coming back ♪ - I signed up for Girls Write Nashville because I love songwriting and I kind of wanted a mentor and someone to help me because a lot of times, it's kind of discouraging when you're by yourself 'cause you feel like, "Oh, I don't know what I'm doing," so being in Guild really helps your confidence and also create your craft.

(group chatters and giggles) Like, it's like upbeat and I really like that.

- Yes.

(everyone laughs) - I wanted to mentor with Girls Write Nashville because I myself am a singer-songwriter.

I've been singing since I was a little girl.

I wish that there was a program like this for me when I was young to encourage and develop and arrange all the thoughts and the creative things I had happening inside my head.

And to be able to arrange it in music and have somebody guide me through the process would've been amazing.

(Rachel laughs) - Girls just faced such a confidence drop in their teen years, and we found that a large part of that is related to girls not having an opportunity to safely fail and to take risks.

Any group that wants to go next?

- I was so nervous.

I don't know how to speak English.

I don't know how to write songs in English, but now they told me that you can write songs in Spanish or English doesn't matter.

So I was nervous to sing in front of others in English, 'cause you know, but then they make me feel comfortable.

So that makes me feel better with myself and with my songs.

- [Rachel] The things that you can learn through the arts can cross over into any part of your life.

You can take something that is challenging, something emotional, and you can take something bad and turn it into something beautiful.

(group applauds) - We're not a professional development-focused nonprofit.

My hope for them is just that they have this practice to express themselves and also that like they've had an experience in our program where their vision was respected and that they can take that as a lesson into their professional life.

So I think that we have a very good rate of achieving those sorts of things for our students.

And I see a lot of our students graduating and reflecting that.

It just feels like they know their worth and so that's a huge victory in my book.

- I'm pretty confident about my work.

Being around these people, it's showed me that like you just need to put it out there and people will understand.

The people you want around will understand.

(group applauds) - [Narrator] This NPT Arts Break is made possible by the generous support of the Martha Rivers Ingram Advised Fund of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.