Girls Rock teaches Columbia girls to own the stage and their power

This week, BB Thompson found her groove on the bass guitar.

Raelyn O’Briant found some new friends.

And Bailey Griggs found her voice.

In fact, they all found their voices – and not just on stage when they stepped up to the mic in front of hundreds of people at the Girls Rock Columbia concert Saturday.

The weeklong music camp taught some 60 girls confidence and empowerment as much as musical skills.

“Every day, these girls go out and they are told, ‘That’s not for you’ by society, by the media, by whatever,” said Mollie Williamson, director of Girls Rock Columbia. “So it’s like they’re telling them, ‘Hey, rock music’s not for girls,’ or ‘Technology’s not for girls,’ ‘Social justice is not for girls.’

“When someone says ‘That’s not for you,’ they learn to say, ‘Yes, it is.’”

A series of workshops highlighting empowering skills, such as photography and self defense as well as social justice issues, including gender stereotyping and body positivity, accompanied the crash-course rock band camp.

Girls ranging in age from 8 to 17, many of whom had never so much as picked up an instrument, formed bands, learned to play rock instruments and wrote a signature song together to perform with their bands at the showcase concert.

Nine-year-old Thompson was so nervous when she first started camp, she said she “imagined butterflies coming out of my mouth.”

It was a similar feeling early in the week for Griggs, 10, who doesn’t usually speak up, she said.

“They’ve taught me so much,” she said, as she prepared to rock the stage playing keyboard with 9-year-old O’Briant and their band, The White Tigers.

A rock concert-worthy crowd was ready to hear The White Tigers as they took the stage.

Harnessing the confidence they had built in a week, the girls synced their beat as O’Briant counted them off.

And then, they rocked.