Since today is the first workshop of the season, many girls have brought their family members to today’s workshop and a 7-year-old little sister is itching to share her work with the rest of the group. Excited by the writing exercises geared toward her teenage sister, the adorable girl grabs the microphone and thoughtfully begins to recite, “I love my sister. Sometimes we have sleepovers,” she pauses, but when her father nods approvingly, her eyes light up and she lets out a very loud and happy, “Yaaaaaay!”

Though not exactly the Gettysburg Address, the crowd goes wild over the brief and gutsy oration. Taylor couldn’t be more pleased. “Talk about expressive—let nobody dampen that beautiful spirit! Twelve [or] thirteen is the age when suddenly you’re being told that you need to be a certain way to be a woman, and that [way] isn’t vocal and it isn’t assertive, and we’re trying to change that.”

WriteGirl also does its best to empower women beyond the written word. When 15-year-old Allie told Associate Director of WriteGirl, Allison Deegan, that one day she wanted to become something women couldn’t be, Deegan assumed she wanted to become a player for the Lakers. But Allie had a strong desire to become a curator for a museum, and an equally strong belief that only one woman in a million could be one. To prove her wrong, Deegan made a few phone calls and convinced the female curator of the Norton Simon museum to talk to Allie about her career choice.

“I saw an exhibit before it opened, they talked to me and gave me all this stuff,” says Allie of the experience. “It was amazing!”

Allie’s mentor Michelle Lewis agrees: “Some of the women involved are really well connected, and everyone wants to help. The access that the girls have is a really great thing.”

And although Taylor is the mastermind behind it all, she seems as surprised about WriteGirl’s success as the rest.