Ladies Rock Camp Brings Women Together Through Music In St. Pete

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Since launching in 2015, Girls Rock Camp St. Pete has empowered girls, helping them build up their self-confidence, through music.

During the week-long camp, the girls learn new instruments, form bands and write a song. It’s also a crash course in social justice and self-care.

Now, for the first time, the organization is offering Ladies Rock Camp Oct. 20-22 at the Allendale Equity & Justice Center. The three-day camp ends with a concert by the women, showcasing the songs they'll write together over the long weekend, at Bayboro Brewing.

The camp is open to women 18 and older, including trans and gender-expansive people. The sliding-scale tuition ranges from $300 to $600. Those interested in registering for the camp should fill out this form.

• Also Read: Girls Rock Camp St. Pete Empowers Youth Through Music

Campers don’t need any previous musical experience to attend the camp, Jesse Miller, executive director, told Patch. “It’s really important that women understand this.”

Several Girls Rock Camp chapters around the country already offer their own Ladies Rock Camps and Miller has dreamed of bringing the concept to St. Petersburg for years.

“I wanted to do this a few years ago, and then COVID happened,” she said. “Then, we had a couple of years of not doing Girls Rock Camp because of (the pandemic) and we’re finally ready to launch (Ladies Rock Camp) now.”

Studies show that there’s a gender confidence gap in girls that happens from the ages of 8 to 14 years old, Miller said.

“It’s a very well-studied phenomenon,” she said. “It’s attributed to many factors happening around that age: You’re going through puberty. You're going into middle school, where you start to encounter popularity issues and bullying behavior, and it’s where girls are starting to be taught to see each other as competition. And it’s the onset of media and the internet, so you get a lot of body dysmorphia about the way girls are supposed to look and they’re feeling very vulnerable about being judged.”

This leads to a drop in their confidence and, frequently, the way they interact with others changes, according to Miller. “Girls just tend to become more quiet and take up less space, and also a lot of negative self-talk begins around that time.”

Newer studies indicate that these experiences often manifest in adulthood in different ways for women, she added. “Women I know, close friends, struggle with negative self-talk and body dysmorphia. It’s manifested in a lot of different ways. I realized that women need this (camp) just as much as girls. Our generation didn’t have camps like this as a kid.”

About 100 volunteers — all women — come together to make Girls Rock Camp happen each summer.

Throughout the week, many tell Miller and other staff members, “This is the camp I needed when I was a kid.”

She said, “So, they’re learning these tools alongside our campers. Filling up this toolbox with different ways to take care of yourself and think of yourself and think of others is just as relevant for women as it is for kids.”