I just read about the film Girls Rock in this month’s Marie Claire and I got excited to see it. Then I visited the films site, read the story summary and I got even more excited to see it. Then I saw this trailer and now I am super excited to see it.

Girls Rock is about the Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls located in Portland, OR where 8-18 year olds come from all over the country to learn Rock DIY-style–forming bands, writing songs and building community, and “Girls Rock!” is the movie about their journey.

The primary subjects of “Girls Rock!” are Laura, an articulate adopted Korean obsessed with death metal; Misty, who is emerging from a life of meth-addiction, homelessness and gang activity; Palace, a sweet-seeming 8-year-old with a heavy metal sneer, and Amelia, who’s writing a 14-song cycle about her dog Pippi. Forming bands, writing songs and playing a gig in one week, these girls and the rest of the camp engage in an experiment in empowerment that will leave no-one unchanged.

In meeting these four children, the filmmakers discovered what many books and studies have already described””girls are struggling with a bewildering and heartbreaking array of challenges to their self-image. Everything from eating disorders to drugs to sexual harassment have made girlhood a virtual battlefield. The filmmakers were happy to find in the camp a place where, in the words of former Camp Assistant Director Jen Agosta, “it is 100% ok to be exactly who you are.” What happens to the girls as they are given a temporary reprieve from being sexualized, analyzed and pressured to conform, is truly exhilarating. The act of picking up a guitar and making noise becomes a truly revolutionary act.

Oh how I wish there was Rock n’ Roll Girls Camp when I was a kid. Although I have terrible tone and I can’t grasp the technical concepts of any instrument but I think I could have faked it, fabulously. I think most women can relate to the struggles we had growing up with self-image and sexuality. Hey, I think of most can still relate with our current struggle with self-image and sexuality.

Soooo I suppose I am too old to go to camp now, huh? Dammit.

For more on Girls Rock the movie and/or to demand it in your city visit www.girlsrockcamp.org And if you want to send your daughter to Rock n’ Roll Girls Camp or want to donate to the cause visit www.girlsrockcamp.org